Out of Time
by The Minsk
Summary: In a world filled with war, despair and desolation, Finn is desperate to change his past and only has one chance to make things right.
1. The Sacrifice

DISCLAIMER: I neither own Glee nor the characters. They are the property of Ryan Murphy and FOX. This is purely for fun. Enjoy!

A/N: Welcome to the new fic! In order for the first chapter to make sense, you must remember that one of the major S3 plotlines will be Sue running for Congress. Don't forget that little tidbit and buckle up for the ride!

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><p><strong>Out of Time<strong>

**Chapter One: The Sacrifice**

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><p><em>Lima, Ohio 2022<em>

Maneuvering his way down the dirty, empty streets of what used to be known as Lima, Ohio, Finn Hudson checked behind his shoulder to make sure he wasn't being followed as he carried a very delicate and precious load in his arms. He'd been waiting five years for this day to finally arrive, and now that he had the final piece to the puzzle he wasn't going to let anything hold him back. Not even the soldiers who were currently trying to track him down for stealing his missing puzzle piece. When he suddenly found himself blocked by a tank and about 50 armed soldiers, he paused momentarily before tucking the package in his jacket and running for his life in the opposite direction.

"We have visual confirmation on Hudson, we're going in!" He could hear the soldiers report him in on their radio but he didn't care; it wouldn't be the first time this had happened and if his plan didn't work then it _definitely_ wouldn't be his last. Besides, he had his gun in case things got sticky, but he knew he probably shouldn't waste his precious ammo.

But his plan tonight _had_ to work. He wouldn't even entertain the option of what would happen if his plan didn't work because at this point, it was all or nothing. If the mission was unsuccessful, then it would be all over for him. He would rather be dead than live in this reality for a minute longer.

The soldiers chased him down the deserted alleys of what used to be his home until he was able to find one of the many secret passageways he had carved into the ruins of the town, ducking inside and hiding until the coast was clear. He held the delicate package in his hands and hoped that nothing had damaged it during his travels. He needed to get this to Artie tonight if their plan was going to work. They were so close. They had been working for so long to get to this point.

The soldiers finally cleared the streets, losing track of Finn, and he sighed in victory as he outran Sue's army for what seemed like the infinite time as he cradled the package in his arms.

It wasn't easy being the most wanted homegrown terrorist in the United States during the reign of President Sylvester. Especially when the president personally wanted you dead.

He poked his head out into the squalor of the streets and took a moment to look around the shell of the town he once knew. The houses were decrepit and decaying, the families all either dead or gone. The field where he used to play football with his friends was now the unofficial Lima graveyard, where the bodies had all been buried after graduation. He stopped by there on his way to the school and looked around the unmarked plots of land. There hadn't been a way to identify the bodies, so they were all laid out here with no markings until the graves stretched out for what seemed like forever. There wasn't a person around this area for miles, but he still refused to leave the shell of his old home.

There were too many memories here. Too many things that he wanted to fix that made leaving Lima impossible.

He knew that he had to get to Artie as soon as possible, but he approached the graveyard with his delicate package in his hands and walked through the endless rows and columns of graves. He would never really be sure just exactly where his friends had been buried ten years ago, but they were all here, decaying underneath the ground with no justice. Almost every single person he had ever known was right here, waiting for him to exact his revenge and fix it all. His mother, Burt, Kurt, Mr. Schuester; every person he had ever loved was right here in this graveyard.

Even Rachel.

"Hey baby." He sat down next to an unmarked grave, but he would never know if this was really his Rachel. Every time he came here he chose another grave to talk to, but he would never know if he was actually sitting with his one true love. "I came to see you one last time." He said, stroking the pale stone while he held the package under his arm. "I'm on my way to bring this to Artie, and we're going to find a way to fix everything, I promise. I know it's been almost ten years, but I can change things, I know it. I can make it better; I can fix this world and make it the way it should have been." He kissed the stone and his lips were cold from the chill of the marble. After all these years, the thought of her still made his heart ache as flashbacks to that hellish day plagued him day and night. "If this works, we can be together again, Rachel. I've never stopped loving you, not even for a second, and you're the reason why I'm doing this. It's all for you." He stood up then, the package in his arms, and he looked out at the graveyard for what he hoped was the last time.

He would change this life. He would change it all.

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><p><em>Lima Ohio 2012<em>

"Finn, my baby boy! I can't believe you're actually graduating high school!" His mother fixed the lapel on his graduation gown and he could see the tears shimmering in her eyes as she looked him up and down. Burt shot him a thumbs up while Kurt did a little twirl in his gown, posing for the cameras with Mercedes and Tina. He grabbed his step-brother around the shoulders and pulled him in for a picture before he flounced off to find Blaine. The auditorium was a sea of McKinley red as the graduates were all getting ready for the ceremony to begin. "I am so proud of you, honey."

"Thanks, mom." To be honest, he was pretty damn proud of himself as well. He had actually survived high school and was ready to get started on the rest of his life. He was 18, he had a full-ride football scholarship to Purdue, and he was ready to get out of Lima and start seeing the world.

If only Rachel hadn't just broken up with him, he would ask her to see the world with him too.

He couldn't even blame her, really. She had been warning him all year of her impending departure to New York and her drive to succeed, so how could he stand in her way? She was destined to do great things with her life, and he knew that deep down, but that didn't mean his heart wasn't still broken over it. He loved Rachel, he would probably _always_ love Rachel, but he had to let her live the life she wanted and be the star she had always dreamed of.

But that didn't mean they couldn't still be friends. He wouldn't be able to handle it if he had lost that pivotal connection to her. He needed her in his life too much to completely let her go.

However, it was a dependency that he would have to get over, because after today she was on her way to New York to become a Broadway star and nothing he could do or say would ever change that. He saw her from across the auditorium with her fathers and made eye contact with her, shooting her a small smile and a wave. She returned it in earnest and approached Finn and his family, giving Carole and Burt big hugs before turning to Finn.

"Hi," she said sweetly in her cap and gown. "You look really handsome today, Finn."

"Thanks," he tucked an errant piece of hair behind her cap as she blushed softly. "You look beautiful."

"Thank you." The urge to kiss her was overwhelming, but seeing as they were no longer dating he didn't want to over step his boundaries. They were friends again. Friends who would always be in love with one another, but friends nonetheless. "I can't believe we're finally graduating." She said brightly.

"I know. It seems unreal."

"But it is real, Finn! After today we're allowed to actually live our lives and start building a future." She inched closer to him as her voice dropped into a whisper. "And after a while, old paths will start to cross again, somewhere down the road." The love was shining in her eyes and he hoped that one day they would truly be able to be together once more. In the future when their lives were stable and they were more mature, maybe they could pick up where they'd left off.

"You know I'll always love you, right?" He asked her softly, their bodies almost touching, their whispers as soft as the wind. She nodded her head and her smile was shaky, but bright.

"Me too, Finn." She reached up and placed a single kiss on his cheek. "Always."

"Attention, everybody. Please start taking your seats, the ceremony is about to start." Principal Figgins' voice could be heard over the microphone and Rachel begrudgingly walked away so she could sit with the B's while Finn went to go sit with the H's. _Stupid alphabetical order_, he thought as he sat in the corner of the row, _I want to sit with Rachel_. He could see the back of her head from his position and his eyes stayed glued there for the majority of the ceremony.

That is, until Sue Sylvester stood up to give the keynote speech.

She was flanked by two bodyguards, and the American Flag pin on her lapel was shining in the bright lights of the makeshift stage as she stood with elegant poise, waiting to begin. Some booing could be heard from the audience, seeing as Sue wasn't the most popular Congressional candidate in Ohio history. In fact, the hate for her was getting so out of control that she required bodyguards wherever she went for her own protection. Finn personally thought that she was going to lose the election, since all of her stances on major issues were immensely flawed and incredibly biased. However, she took herself very seriously and as the election year was quickly coming to a close, she needed to gain all the support she could muster.

So she stood on the stage and waved to the registered voters, including the seniors who would be 18 before election day, like Finn. Her smile was forced but the majority of the crowd loved her, since Lima was her hometown and she would forever be known as a hero here. However, before she could start talking, there was a flurry of movement as someone entered the empty aisle of students in a long black trench-coat, walking towards the stage quickly while the student body and their families waited for Sue to begin speaking. Finn saw the man out of the corner of his eye and he wondered if it was someone in stage crew or something. There was a wide brimmed hat that covered his face from view and Finn thought it seemed very bizarre, seeing as it was the end of June and about 90 degrees in the auditorium.

All of a sudden, the masked figure jumped on the makeshift stage and the bodyguards stood in front of Sue with their guns raised. The man opened his trench-coat and revealed the ticking bomb that was strapped onto his chest. "DIE YOU CONSERVATIVE BITCH!" was all he could hear before everything went black and he remembered no more.

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><p>"No!" He shot out of his bed like a bullet, feeling disoriented and shaken up by his nightmare as he willed himself to calm down. The nightmares of that day would haunt him for the rest of his life, he was sure of it. It was the attack that had changed the nation; that had started all the civil wars and rebellions that had ripped their country apart.<p>

Sue had not only survived the attack, but she'd made domestic terrorism her platform for the election and subsequently _won _due to a strange mix of fear-mongering and sympathy votes. After four years in Congress, she passed numerous laws restricting the freedom of Americans until people were basically slaves of the government; walking numbers whose sole purpose was to pay taxes and stay loyal to the regime.

Then, in an election that shocked the nation, Sue was elected President before turning the government into a totalitarian state through her never-ending terrorism campaigns. While she was still referred to as President Sylvester she was more like a dictator, a tyrannical politician that abused her power to the most extreme degree.

That was how the rebellions had started. Then the civil wars and the burning of the cities. The American people wanted their freedoms back. They wanted the world that they had once known, before it had become desolate and scarred by war and hate.

That was how the world had changed after the McKinely bombing. It was one of those events that had changed the course of history, and the only way to fix the world's problems was to stop the bombing of his graduation from ever happening.

The only problem was that it had taken place ten years ago.

He washed his face in the mirror of the bathroom and took a look at his tired, haggard face. Even though he was barely 30, he looked much older as the past ten years had taken a heavy toll on him. His body was partially covered in burn scars from the bombing, but sometimes he could still see the young, enthusiastic boy he'd once been under the scarring, both emotional and physical. He knew deep down that he would never be the same guy he once was, but all he cared about now was ensuring the future of his young self, not fixing the damage that had already been done.

Frowning at his reflection in the mirror, he exited his "bedroom" which was actually the old teacher's lounge in the high school. He walked through the charred hallways until he reached the science labs, where Artie had set up his laboratory. Besides Sue and Quinn Fabray, _that traitor_, Artie was the only survivor he knew of and had dedicated his life to science after that. Finn had been working with Artie for the past five years, trying to execute their plan to perfection.

"Hey Finn, did you sleep well?" Artie asked, barely looking up from his computer screen as he typed away at the keys furiously.

"I guess so. Bad dreams." Artie looked up from the monitor for a nanosecond but he could see the sympathy in his eyes.

"I know how you feel man, but you needed the rest before we went through with the plan. The jump is going to take a lot out of you."

"If it doesn't kill me first." He said dryly. "We can't even practice on anything."

"I know that Finn, but we only have the resources to send one person in one direction. This is a one-way trip you're about to go on so I hope you packed accordingly." Finn checked his bag to make sure he had a change of clothes and his gun. That was pretty much all he needed.

"Just make sure you set it for the right time and day, alright? I don't want to jump into some crazy time period and get stuck there for eternity without any way to save Rachel."

Artie looked over from the computer and fixed Finn with an even glare. "Finn, it's taken all of my life's research to come up with this machine, I know how to set it up properly. Besides, you're not just going to save Rachel, you're going to save the _world_. Remember that. Sue being elected to Congress was the tipping point in our reality, the action that plunged us all into this totalitarian hell. If you can stop her, by any means, then you would reset time into a new reality where America isn't war-torn and poverty stricken. A world where our families aren't dead. A world where we can be with the ones we love."

_A world where I can be with Rachel again. . . _he thought to himself.

"So, it's quiz time, buddy. What are the rules?" Artie asked.

"No talking to anyone, especially people who once knew me."

"Yes, you could damage their reality by introducing an older version of yourself to their conscious mind, what else?"

"Whatever happens to Sue must look like an accident."

"Exactly, if it doesn't it could further warp reality and create another tangent that could further damage the timeline." Artie was waiting for another one but his mind was drawing a blank. "What else, dude?" Finn shrugged while Artie slammed his fist down in anger.

"You're forgetting the most important part! Stay the hell away from your younger self. If you two consciously interact you could rip the entire space-time continuum apart and destroy reality altogether."

"Oh. I knew that." He said softly as Artie glared daggers at him.

"Finn, this is serious business. You're about to go back in time and try to change history. If you change too much then you might be messing up reality forever, the same way that the homegrown terrorist ruined _our_ reality forever."

"I know, Artie, I know." He had been lectured on this subject every day for five years, he knew what he was about to do. He'd once promised Rachel that she would have the life she had always wanted, and he was going to change it all for the better. "I'm ready." Artie started to type away into his computer while he unloaded Finn's package into his machine.

The package that he had delivered the night before was actually a load of plutonium that Finn was able to steal from the military facility outside of Lima borders. Over the years he had gotten really good at stealing and rebelling against the government that had ruined his life, which had landed him on the top of the Most Wanted Terrorists list. Now that he was constantly being hunted by the government that he hated, he had no reason to stay here. Sometimes he wished that he had died with the rest of his friends, but then he wouldn't be able to fix anything.

Even if it turned into a suicide mission, which it basically was anyway, he didn't really care. All he cared about was ensuring a future for Rachel and his younger self. A future where she could be a star, and live a long and beautiful life with no pain.

It might not even work. It might do absolutely nothing and their plan would have been a massive waste of time and energy. The jump might even kill him. He might never have a way to come back to this place.

He didn't care. There was nothing for him here except broken promises and unmarked graves to mourn.

There was no turning back now.

He stepped onto the metal platform that sat in the middle of his old chemistry lab, trying not to panic as Artie continued to plug numbers into his machine. If it weren't for Artie, Finn would have nothing and he owed his oldest and dearest friend his life as Artie prepared the machine to send him back in time.

"Are you ready for this Finn?" Artie asked once more as he plugged in the final information. The plutonium chamber on the platform started to glow as Finn tempered his nerves.

"I'm ready, Artie. Let's do this."

"Remember the rules, Finn. Remember the goal." Finn nodded his head solemnly as he continued to plug numbers into the controls. Before Artie could press the button, the door was kicked open and a dozen of Sue's armed guards entered the room with their guns pointed right at them.

"Hands in the air! You're under arrest for conspiracy!" All of Finn's hope was obliterated in an instant while he raised his hands in the air in defeat. However, before Artie could do the same he slammed his hands on the controls and the guards opened fire on him. The last thing Finn saw before time stretched out all around him was Artie's body, shaking as the bullets ripped through him.

"Artie, no!" He screamed, but no one could hear him as he passed through the empty void of time.

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><p>His vision was as white as winter's snow when he regained consciousness, feeling the hard ground beneath his feet while he tried to shake off the disorienting feeling that settled into his bones. The ground was cold under his fingers and he could smell the dull acidity of chemicals as something hard hit into his head. When the world finally zoomed into focus, he realized he was sitting on the floor of the chemistry lab, but it no longer looked like Artie's decrepit work space.<p>

It looked almost new. All the desks were in their proper spots and the materials were all placed gently in their cabinets. There were no broken windows or busted lights or missing desks. Everything was exactly like he had remembered it as a loud shrill bell rang overhead. He ducked out of the back door of the classroom and ran for the nearest exit, escaping the school he had once known to make sure his plan had worked. When he exited the school and saw the football field, he dropped to his knees and almost cried.

There were no unmarked graves that stretched out for miles. It still looked as pristine as it did when he was still on the team; young and carefree and clueless about the fate of the world.

He pressed his face into the fresh growing grass and inhaled, breathing in the scent of fresh life. Breathing in the scent of freedom.

_It had worked_. Artie had actually done it. Finn Hudson had traveled back from the future and now he had a mission.

To stop Sue Sylvester and save this reality from complete disaster.

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><p>Until next time, sings, Don't Stop, Reviewing!<p>

Merci mille fois mes amis!


	2. A New Mission

DISCLAIMER: I neither own Glee nor the characters. They are the property of Ryan Murphy and FOX. This is purely for fun. Enjoy! :)

A/N: I am so sorry this took so long to update but hopefully now that SFM is almost over you won't have to wait too long for another.

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><p><strong>Chapter Two: A New Mission<strong>

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><p><em>Lima, Ohio 2022<em>

A tall, lone figure walked down the decrepit hallways of the dilapidated school with a look of distaste etched across her features. She walked slowly, absorbing everything in, letting her nostalgia take over in a rare show of emotion. This had been where her reign had begun and even though it was a desolate shell of what it once was, she would always be a little bit fond of this place.

She never would have become President without the help of McKinely high school, that was for sure.

She paused in front of a shattered glass case, her feet crushing the shards of glass that littered the floor as he eyes raked over the faded and charred pictures. A young girl with blonde hair and a gorgeous smile was pictured in the center, her arms wrapped around two girls that the President hadn't seen in years. They looked like the epitome of youth and innocence in their bright red cheerleading uniforms and poms at their sides. She was shocked to find her eyes moist with tears as she stared at the faded picture of the three girls together.

"Quinn!" Her command was low, but in an instant her most trusted confidant was at her side.

"Yes, Madame President?" Sue looked down at her companion and realized that she was quite different from the young girl in the photo in front of her. No longer was her face soft and bright with the promise of her future; Quinn Fabray was now hard and jagged like stone, her face half-covered by a mask that hid the extensive damage from the tragic accident that took the lives of most of the town. Sue had personally cared for Quinn after the tragedy at graduation and kept her close to her at all times. To this day, Quinn was the only person that Sue could truly trust and she knew all of her deepest, darkest secrets.

"What did you find?" She looked down at Quinn and the blonde was staring at the same picture that had distracted her while they stood in the charred remains of the high school. A look of longing could be seen in her eyes that Sue could not ignore as she continued to stare at her once perfect youth. "Quinn!" The blonde jumped, shocked out of her temporary distraction while she looked at Sue with her partially disfigured face. The mask covered most of the scarring, but Quinn would never again be the vibrant, smiling beauty that she once was.

"I'm sorry ma'am. Abrams is dead. We found him in one of the science labs with some kind of machine hooked up to a generator."

"And Hudson? Where is Hudson? That little shit has been fighting me for years; I want him in my custody, now."

Quinn winced sharply, but continued. "He's nowhere to be seen, ma'am."

Sue turned around swiftly to share her displeasure with her subordinate. "What do you mean? My team identified him as he entered the building, he has to be here somewhere!" She seethed silently when Quinn shook her head.

"Some of the soldiers think they saw something in the lab. Lights were flashing and some said they saw Finn disappear right in front of their eyes." Sue's blood was boiling in anger as she pushed past Quinn and started to march towards the classroom. She didn't care whether or not Quinn was following her, she needed to see this lab for herself.

She poked her head into the rotting old classroom and immediately saw the machine that Quinn had been talking about. Abrams' body was still stretched across the console an she stared at it with distaste as she stepped onto the platform and took a hard look around the room.

On the wall where there used to hang posters of the periodic table of elements and the solar system, hung pictures and charts of every shape and size. Endless newspaper clippings from the past littered the walls and floors and she stared at the line graphs on the wall with unease. Something about this little "lab" wasn't right and it set off alarms in her head that she couldn't ignore. Whistling loudly, she addressed the closest soldier to her with new orders.

"You are to order the top scientists in the nation to report to me so they can analyze this machine and tell me how it works. I want to know what Abrams and Hudson were planning, and whether or not they succeeded."

"Yes Ma'am."

"Quinn?" She called for her assistance but no one answered. Marching out into the hallway, she saw that Quinn was still staring at the same old picture in the case, and when she approached the disfigured blonde she could see a shining track of tears on her face that she decidedly chose to ignore. They had more pressing matters to discuss and nostalgia was nothing more than a distraction. "Come on, we're leaving."

Quinn nodded, but wouldn't take her eyes off the picture of her, Brittany and Santana from senior year. She grabbed the young woman by her ponytail and pulled her away from the broken display case, where her youthful dreams were as shattered as the glass that littered the floor. "Let's go!" She screamed. "It's bad enough that this is all your fault! I should have arrested Hudson years ago but you begged me to let him live and now I think he's plotting against me."

Quinn struggled against the tight hold on her hair as she fought back tears. "I thought they were harmless, I just wanted them to be safe." She whimpered. "They were the only ones left."

"Well they weren't harmless, Quinn. You're going to work with the scientists and figure out what happened today. Then you're going to find a way to fix this." She pulled Quinn by the hair until their faces were mere inches apart and ripped away her mask so she could feel fully vulnerable and exposed. The left side of her face was charred beyond recognition while the right side of her face still remained youthful and supple. Her left eye was scarred shut from the fire and her lips were stuck in a permanent half-grimace. She looked up at Sue with unabashed fear in her eyes and reached for the mask. Sue pulled her hair even tighter and held the mask out of her reach.

"I promise I'll find out what happened to Finn!" Quinn said, frantically. "I'll find a way to stop him."

"You better." She let go of Quinn's hair but would not return the mask. "I pulled you out of the wreckage of this school and let you live like a Queen at the top of my reign. You would be as dead as Brittany and Santana if I hadn't given you this chance. Don't make me regret it. You _better_ fix this." Quinn nodded and Sue could no longer stomach looking at her scarred and disfigured face. "Here, I can't stand to look at you anymore." She threw the mask at Quinn's feet and the once beautiful blonde scrambled to place it back on her face and hide behind it's shield. The President looked around the hallways once more and all the nostalgia she had once felt was now replaced with a simmering anger. When her soldiers removed the machine from the lab, along with all of the paperwork and research found there, she ordered the school to be burned.

She smiled from her helicopter as she saw the flames stretch up toward the sky.

She pretended not to hear Quinn crying.

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><p><em>Lima, Ohio 2012<em>

His head was still buried in the grass of the football field, inhaling the fresh air into his lungs as the sun shone down on him for the first time in ages. Back home the dust in the air mostly blocked out the sunlight, leaving the world as a hazy, humid shell of itself. Pulling his head back, he let the rays of light bounce off of his skin and he had never felt so alive. It was as if he were in a prison for all those years and he had finally escaped into the freedom of the past. He had to resist the urge to shout in his exuberance as he stretched himself out on the astroturf, letting a rare smile grace his features.

He had actually done it. The jump had worked and now he was back in the innocent bliss of his past, where the world was still as simple and beautiful as he remembered it. As far as he was concerned, his friends were still alive and living blissfully unaware of their fates.

It was then that he remembered his mission. He wasn't here for some kind of twisted vacation, he had traveled through space and time for a reason and he needed to prioritize before his distractions compromised the mission.

He though about Artie for a while, sitting on the grass of the field while he mourned his dearest friend. He thought about all of the rules that Artie had drilled into him, and the repercussions of breaking the rules as well. Sue Sylvester was his target and if the machine had really worked properly, then he had ample time to plan his new mission and execute it without anyone ever noticing him. They had decided to send him back to the end of Junior year, June 2011, before Sue had officially entered the race for office. Back then she wasn't constantly being followed around by armed guards and cameramen, so getting to her would be much easier.

He felt very exposed standing in the field by himself in the middle of the day and he had to figure out where he would find food and shelter during his stay in 2011 without any money, so he stood up from his place in the field and started walking off of school grounds, passing by the outdoor quad where him and his friends used to eat lunch everyday.

That was when he saw them. All of the members of his high school glee club were sitting on the steps of the quad with their lunch trays balancing on their laps. They were happy, they were smiling, and most of all they were _alive_. He could hear Brittany's soft laughter as Mike Chang started moonwalking across the concrete steps. Santana threw gummy bears across the group into Puck's open mouth, and Mercedes and Kurt were bickering about fashion while the rest of the group rolled their eyes.

But his heart practically stopped beating in his chest when he saw _her_. Rachel. he love of his life, alive and in the flesh, She was sitting next to Tina and popping carrot sticks into her mouth while laughing brightly at something that he couldn't hear. She was so beautiful he thought he might cry. The sun was bouncing off of her hair and giving it a shine that he hadn't seen in years. She was practically glowing with happiness and he couldn't help but move a few steps closer to the happy children who were so blissfully unaware of their doomed fates. Her hair was pulled back slightly, exposing the silhouette of her face as she leaned back against a large, broad chest.

_Finn's_ large broad chest. The younger version of himself was cuddling with Rachel at lunchtime, surrounded by their friends and enjoying the ignorance of their impending deaths.

He didn't care that he was breaking one of the most important cardinal rules of time travel, he wanted to see Rachel's face. It was the face that haunted his dreams at night. It was the face that started this demented crusade to somehow change the past. Everything he had done so far was to save her, and now she was barely 15 feet away from him. How many sleepless nights had been spent imagining this moment? How many nightmares had he experienced where he saw her beautiful body burning in front of his eyes?

None of it mattered anymore. Rachel was here, she was alive, and he was going to save her. That part of the mission was still his number one goal.

He watched as the younger version of himself wrapped an arm around her shoulder as she leaned into him and he could remember this moment. The past decade had allowed him much time for nostalgia so if his memory was correct then something was definitely wrong here. They didn't start eating outside as a group until the end of senior year, after they had won Nationals and treated the school like they owned it. If that was the case. . .

He snapped out of his thoughts when he saw Rachel stand up, smoothing her skirt down before pulling Finn up from his place and walking away with him toward the school. He looked down at his friends once more and promised them silently that he would save them all. Then he followed Rachel and his past self back into the school, not wanting to let her out of his sight for even a moment. She pulled his younger self into the choir room and he stood outside of it, hoping to stay unnoticed.

"What's the matter, Rach? Are you feeling okay?" He could hear his younger self asking the question and he could barely remember when life had been so simple. Back then the only thing he had to worry about was school and glee club. Now he had to worry about the fate of his friends and the stability of the free world. Being an adult really sucked sometimes.

"Yeah Finn, I'm fine. I'm just a little sad." Hearing her voice again after so many years was like hearing bells ringing on a crisp morning; clear and bright and musical all at once. How he had _missed_ her.

"About what? We just won Nationals, you should be ecstatic!" Wait, they had just _won_ Nationals? Then that means they weren't juniors, they were _seniors_.

Which means that Artie had sent him back a year too late.

"That's not what I'm talking about, Finn. I'm talking about us." Uh-oh. Finn knew where this was going and if he closed his eyes he could almost picture the look on Rachel's face and feel the way his heart had clenched in his chest at her words.

"What about us?" Out in the hallway, future Finn rested his head against the cold walls of the school while he eavesdropped on a conversation that he could remember clear as day.

"You remember what you said last year when we started dating again? That graduation was only a year away?"

"Yeah." _I shouldn't be here_, he thought to himself, _I have more important things to worry about than hearing Rachel break up with me all over again. _But as much as he willed himself to move on and start planning his mission, he couldn't pull himself away from the sound of Rachel's voice.

"Well, it's been a year Finn. Graduation is on Friday and I'll be moving to New York in a month with Kurt so we can move into the apartment."

"I know that, Rachel, you've been planning it all year. You know I don't care about the distance, we can try to make it work."

"You know I have to dedicate all my focus on my career. Trying to balance a relationship with you wouldn't be fair to either of us, especially with your football scholarship." How come after ten whole years it still felt like his heart was broken over this? He couldn't deny that Rachel was right, but even after all this time it still felt like her argument was unfair. They could have tried to make it work, if they'd had the chance.

Which reminded him why he was here. He had to ensure a future where Rachel would have her chance to be a star and not reminisce on what could have been. He had obviously been sent back way too late for his previous ideas to work and had little time to waste in extensive trips down memory lane.

"Excuse me, but is there something I can help you with?" Finn's blood froze in his veins as he heard the icy voice of Sue Sylvester address him in the hallway. He looked down into her blue eyes and could see nothing but evil there, even though to everyone in Lima she was still just Coach Sylvester.

Not for much longer though.

He didn't answer her and instead continued to glare at her with hatred shining in his eyes. She stepped closer to him and he could see the shining American Flag pin on her lapel. She was already deep into her campaign by now, there was no way to get rid of her quietly that wouldn't involve the press.

Shit. His plans were falling apart before he even had the chance to execute any of them.

"Sir, you do realize that you are trespassing on school property unless you have a valid reason to be here. Do I need to call security?"

"No," he said gruffly, dropping his voice so she couldn't tell how closely it resembled the voice coming out of the choir room where Rachel was busy breaking up with him. "My, uh, nephew goes to school here, I was just coming to pick him up to, uh, go to the dentist."

Sue fixed him with a stern glare and pointed down the hall. "Go sign in and wait at the main office. A Supervisory Aide will escort him to the office where you can take him out of the school. Stay out of the halls." With one last look of distaste Sue marched away, and it took all of his restraint not to chase after her and push her down the stairs or something. The stakes were too high and now that she was so far into the race for office, anything that happened to her would create a media-blitz that could compromise their futures even further. Everything had to look natural, like an accident, or else the repercussions might snowball the time-line in a way that no one would be able to fix.

No, he had to plan this out perfectly or else his trip would have been made in vain. So far the only thing that went right was the fact that he'd survived the jump, and with only a few days available to plan he needed all the time he could possibly afford in order to stop the tragedy at graduation.

He turned around to escape the confines of the school and find some decent shelter when he walked right into Rachel and his younger self, who were exiting the choir room where they had just broken up. He immediately ducked his head as low as he possibly could, turning the scarred parts of his face towards them so they couldn't recognize his features. The younger version of himself pulled Rachel out of his way, while she did nothing but stare at him in confusion.

"Sorry," he said brusquely as he pushed passed them.

"Dude, watch where you're going!" Younger Finn yelled after him and he desperately tried to get away from them as fast as he could without looking suspicious.

"Finn," he could hear Rachel's inquisitive voice follow him down the hall. "Do we know that guy?"

"I don't think so Rach, he looked old and his face was all scarred and stuff." Finn kept walking, needing to get away from Rachel before he did something monumentally stupid, like pull her in for a hug or something.

"He seems really familiar. . ." Her voice trailed off when he finally reached the front doors and exited the school, feeling the warm sun on his face and wanting to escape from the memories that still haunted him after all these years. This was his one chance to fix things and he couldn't mess it up, even if Graduation was only a few days away and he was grossly under-prepared.

"Hey! Hey, wait up!" He stopped in his tracks when he heard Rachel's voice calling after him, and he turned around to see her emerge from the school and walk right towards him. She was wearing a light blue summer dress with the outline of birds flying in the sky, and a white cardigan was wrapped around her waist. Her eyes were bright but riddled with questions as she approached him. While all of his senses were screaming at him to run, he didn't want to leave the vision of beauty in front of him. She looked just as beautiful as the day she died, which instantly reminded him of his place in her world. He should not be here talking to her. He needed to get away.

"Hey! Wait!" He started to run from her, putting as much distance between them as his long legs would allow. She couldn't see him, it could ruin everything!

"Stay away from me!" He yelled, desperate for her to leave him alone, but from what he remembered of Rachel's personality she was never one to leave things be. He quickly ran across the parking lot toward the street and when he looked behind him once more she was still chasing him, and about to run directly in the path of an oncoming car. Panicking, he didn't even consider his actions before he ran back towards her and grabbed her by the waist as the screeching of a car horn could be heard. He held her body close to his before he jumped out of the way of the oncoming car, hitting the concrete and rolling away with Rachel tucked safely into his chest.

There were cuts on his arms that bled freely, and his head was pounding with pain, but he had moved out of the way at exactly the right moment so there was no extensive damage to either of them. He loosened his grip on the body in his arms and looked down, only to see Rachel's big beautiful eyes looking up at his scarred face as reality sunk in once again.

For the first time in ten years he was looking into the eyes of the girl he loved. They were the same eyes that had been haunting his dreams, that had fueled his resolve to come back and change everything. Now she was _right here_ in his arms and he never wanted to let go of her ever again.

"Do I know you from somewhere?" She whispered as she pulled away from his embrace.

"No," he said as he pushed away from her, trying to scramble to his feet while she did the same.

"You saved my life." Her eyes were still wide from the shock and locked onto his own as they faced one another. His whole mission was to save her life, but definitely not in this context.

"Yeah, be careful when you cross the street." He broke eye contact with her and started to walk away again, knowing that this whole encounter could ruin everything he had ever planned with Artie.

"Hey, wait! You can't just walk away from me, I'm going to be a star on Broadway one day!"

_Not if I don't succeed in my mission_, he thought to himself as he tried desperately to ignore her.

"I'll just follow you again, you know! You can't just ignore me and I won't stop until my questions are answered!" He knew she was being serious when she started to stomp after him down the road, and he turned around and grabbed her by the shoulders in his desperation, looking into her haunting eyes for effect.

"Listen to me, Rachel. You need to stay away from me, okay? I don't know you, I have nothing to do with you, so you need to just live your life and forget you ever saw me today." Her features hardened and she was able to pick up on his little slip before he could.

"If I don't know you, then how do you know my name?" Oh s_hit._ "And why do you look so much like my boyfriend, Finn?"

He was panicking as she trapped him with her beautiful eyes, the eyes that had stopped shining years ago, the eyes that had willed him throughout his journey to succeed, no matter the cost. She said she wanted her questions answered, well he was going to see if she could handle them. With graduation only days away, he was going to need all the help he could get and Artie's rules seemed rather ridiculous to him now that Rachel was already here in his arms. He had already messed things up already, why not tempt fate even further?

"Because Rachel," he lightly stroked the soft skin on her cheek and he wondered how many nights he had wished for this one opportunity to be with her again. Even for a moment, all of his dreams were coming true as he breathed in her soft scent and felt her skin on his fingertips. "I _am_ Finn."

As she stared at him in shock, he wondered if the universe would fall apart immediately or if the unraveling of time and space took a while.

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><p>Until next time, sings, Don't Stop, Reviewing!<p>

Merci mille fois, mes amis!


	3. Occam's Razor

DISCLAIMER: I neither own Glee nor the characters. They are the property of Ryan Murphy and FOX. This is purely for fun. Enjoy!

A/N: Sorry I decided to take a vacation from writing in the middle of this fic, but I'm back!

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><p><strong>Chapter Three: Occam's Razor<strong>

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><p><em>Lima, Ohio 2022<em>

"This is impossible." Quinn Fabray said to herself as she walked down the long corridors of Sue's research facility, her head buried in her work. She had been locked in here for days, doing nothing but analyzing the machines that they had taken out of the high school; the project that Artie and Finn had been working on before Finn had disappeared. She had gotten a message from the head scientist to meet him in the lab so they could go over the research together. They had been analyzing the technology non-stop and she thought the scientists were starting to crack; this latest report just didn't make any sense to her as she entered her office in the lab. What she wasn't expecting was to see Sue there as well; shooting Quinn a chilly glare while she looked through the rest of the research.

"Madame President! I wasn't expecting you here this morning." Quinn said in a rush, trying to calm her racing heart around her powerful boss.

"You should always be expecting me, Quinn. I could be anywhere." Her eyes shrunk into narrow slits as she approached her aide. "Have you read the reports?"

"I was glancing over them, yes. I was just about to go to the debriefing."

"There will be no debriefing, follow me." Sue turned on the spot and marched out of the office while Quinn ran after her, trying to keep up. It wasn't easy working for Sue, but at least she wasn't dead, or worse; out there in the world without any protection. Sue provided that for her, and as difficult as her job could be sometimes, she knew deep down that she was one of the safest people in the whole country, simply because she was at Sue's side. She trotted behind Sue until they entered the main lab, joining the head scientist, Dr. Tully, who was plugging numbers into the machine and reading the results on his tablet. Her eyes raked across the lab and it almost looked as disheveled as the school had been. What had Artie been working on there, and what happened to Finn?

"Dr. Tully, is the device still functional?" Sue demanded while Quinn took her time soaking in all the knobs and buttons on the controls.

"Oh, yes, very much so. It just needs some fuel, a destination and of course, a passenger."

"You mean this is a real transportation device?" Quinn asked as she stared at it in awe.

"Well yes, technically it is; but in actuality the person who created this machine might just be the most brilliant mind that had ever lived." Quinn frowned, seeing that Artie was now dead.

"Why is that, Doctor?" Quinn asked while Sue glared at the machine with blatant distaste.

"Because whoever made this created the very first functional time machine in all of modern civilization." Sue stopped in her tracks and Quinn watched as a violent fury filled her eyes. She recognized this look; she knew it all too well as she started to back up away from the volatile dictator.

"You're telling me that this piece of shit is actually a time machine?"

"Absolutely, it's amazing to analyze up close. They use the radioactive properties of plutonium to send enough energy through the machine to rip a hole through the entire space-time continuum. It's terribly fascinating." While the scientist looked entirely pleased with himself, Sue looked as if she wanted to attack him. So the reports weren't a joke; Artie had really built himself a time machine. Is that what happened to Finn?

When Sue spoke again, her voice was deadly low. "What happened to Hudson? Where did he go?"

The Doctor scrambled to look at the information he had gathered and tried to explain to her and Sue the phenomenon that had transpired. "You see, the machine was set for a certain time and date, but time isn't as linear as people might think. I believe this machine operates through loopholes, which could send you into any fixed point in time, depending on which loophole you take; almost like an inter-dimensional highway. So even though it was set at a specific time, I don't think the traveler arrived there."

"So Finn could be lost in space and time? Forever?" Quinn couldn't help but still feel attached to Finn after all this time; especially now that they were the last ones left from Lima.

"No, I think this person got to their destination, but I don't think they arrived on the right day. Time is all relative when you think about it." Before the doctor could speak again, Sue grabbed him by the tie and started to squeeze until his chunky face turned blue.

"_Where. Is. He._" She punctuated every word for emphasis and the poor man's eyes started to bulge out of his head.

"Early 20-teens, I think." He gasped wildly. "The date was set for June 2011, but I don't think he made it that far back." Sue was still strangling the scientist when Quinn put all the pieces together in her head.

"He's gonna do it." She whispered to herself as the ghost of a memory played out in her mind. "He's actually going to do it." She had seen Finn only once after the accident that had claimed the lives of all of their friends and family, while he was still in the hospital. He'd been delirious while she tried to talk him into a position on Sue's personal guard so they could stick together, and look out for one another.

"_No," _his answer had been. _"I have to change it, Quinn. I have to bring them back. . ." _It hadn't made sense to her then, but it made sense now.

"He's trying to change everything, Madame President." She said firmly while Sue stopped choking the scientist. "Finn went back to stop the explosion at McKinely." _He's going to give us our lives back. . ._

Sue violently pushed the scientist away from her as she started to pace around the room, glaring at the machine with more hatred than she thought could be aimed at an inanimate object. The scientist scurried to his feet and tried to leave the lab, but Sue pulled him back to her side and demanded answers.

"Can you control this machine? And you better not say no."

The scientist nodded his head as ample amounts of sweat dripped from his brow. "Y-Yes." Quinn couldn't tell if he was lying or not.

"Get it started. I'm sending someone back today."

"But ma'am, we don't know if the machine even works properly. This Finn person might have died during the jump. . ."

"I don't give a shit and I'm not paying you to care, either. Get this machine started, now. Program it for the same coordinates as before. Quinn, come here." Quinn was startled when Sue finally addressed her, and the powerful president placed her hands on both of Quinn's shoulders in a rare display of affection.

"Quinn, for a long time you've been the only person I could trust, right?"

"Of course. You've always been like a mother to me." Sue had personally pulled her out of the wreckage and given her the best kind of life that she could provide in this damaged world.

"Well, it's time for me to share something with you that I've never told anyone before." Sue pulled her completely out of the lab so no one could overhear their conversation. Quinn stared at Sue with her one good eye until she finally spoke. "Finn cannot be allowed to stop the attack at Graduation."

For a moment Quinn couldn't even breathe as Sue's words registered in her head. "What did you just say?"

"The bomb _will_ be going off at McKinely during Graduation, Quinn. You have to stop him."

"But I don't understand, Sue!" She yelled, forgetting her place in this world. "He can save everyone, he can stop this world from becoming what it is!"

"What this world is, is safe. Under my regime there is nothing left to fear."

"Under your regime there's nothing _but_ fear!" She screamed and Sue slapped her in the face so hard that her mask came flying off, revealing the layers of scarred flesh and tissue; a constant reminder of her pain and loss.

"You watch who you're talking to, you ungrateful little bitch! How do you think I survived the attack when I was the target, huh? _I planned it!_"

Quinn felt dangerously dizzy. "What?" Sue didn't answer her, she just picked up the mask from the floor, handed it over to Quinn, and started to drag her back into the lab.

"And since I was the one to personally pull you out of the wreck and save your skinny ass, the least you could do is show some gratitude. You're going back there to make sure that everything happens as planned. There can be no failure, Quinn. When you come back, you'll be a hero."

"But Sue-" _How could you do this to me? To all of us?_

"Just shut up and stand still!" She pushed the scientist over to the machine and a strange hum could be heard all around the lab. Quinn started to get nervous as she stared at Sue with her good eye and stood on the platform without question. When Sue approached her once more, she handed over a military grade duffel bag, and when Quinn peered into it she saw enough guns and plastic explosives to take out the entire town of Lima, Ohio.

"I can't do this, Sue. I can't let my friends die all over again." Sue shook her head and called in two of her most elite guards from her security detail. She ordered them onto the platform with her, and relayed her orders.

"Gentlemen, you are to accompany Ms. Fabray on this mission to be completed precisely as planned. If she does not complete her objectives or shows signs of sympathy towards any rebellious acts she is to be executed immediately."

"Yes ma'am." The soldiers said, and Quinn knew that her fate had been sealed.

"Don't let me down, Q." Sue winked at her and all she wanted to do was scream as a bright light flashed around her before everything went dark.

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><p><em>Lima, Ohio 2012<em>

"This is impossible." Rachel said, looking up into the overwhelmingly familiar eyes of this complete stranger in front of her who was claiming to be Finn. He was still holding her hands and while she knew she should be creeped out by him, there was something about him that she found too intriguing to ignore.

Well, actually, the fact that he looked and sounded exactly like Finn was too impossible to ignore as he blinked furiously, as if snapping out of a trance, dropping her hands like her skin was on fire. "You're right, I lied." He said before walking away from her on the spot. Again.

"Hey! Stop walking away from me!" She had already almost been hit by a car, she didn't want to be chasing around this stranger all night long. All she wanted was some answers. "You're not Finn!" She called after him, but he kept walking.

He didn't answer, also refusing to make eye contact with her while he walked ahead. All she could see of his face was the scar tissue creeping up his neck, hitting his face below the ear and spreading slightly onto his cheeks. Maybe he was a soldier or a firefighter? He had to be a Hudson, though; there was no way that the resemblance she saw was a coincidence. The tall, broad frame, the high cheek bones, the chiseled features, the deep chestnut eyes, the dozens of birthmarks scattered across his face. . .she could almost make out her favorite patterns after endless lazy afternoons spent playing "connect-the-birthmarks."

Wait. . .birthmarks weren't hereditary. . .

"Who are you?" She said, softly, now starting to get really freaked out. She had just seen Finn mere minutes ago; there was no way he could be in two places at once, looking like two different versions of himself. It wasn't logical, and Rachel Berry was nothing if not logical. He stopped walking then, turning around to face her and she could barely believe her eyes. He looked just like her Finn, but at the same time he was nothing like her Finn; this man was hard and tough and looked like he had nothing left to lose. His eyes were just as deep as Finn's but there was a darkness there that Rachel couldn't ignore. This was a man who had experienced a very hard life. He also looked like he hadn't smiled in years.

"Rachel, I'm begging you to just forget you ever met me. Everything would be so much easier if you pretended this never happened." When she wouldn't budge he sighed and rubbed his temples with his fingertips. "You were always so damn stubborn, I can't believe I forgot about that."

"I refuse to leave you alone until you explain yourself, since there is no possible way that you could be Finn Hudson."

"You're right, Rachel. I'm not Finn. I'm his cousin, uh, Dean; I just out of the military and I looked him up on Facebook to see if I can meet him and catch up on life. Happy?"

"No, I'm not." She said, matter-of-factly. "Finn doesn't have any cousins, both of his parents were only children."

"Shit," he cursed under his breath, "Rachel, you don't understand what's happening right now."

"You're damn right, I don't understand! I want some answers, you Finn-postor!" The stranger before her looked like he wanted to argue, but then he paused and stared at her with heavy confusion in his gaze.

"What did you just call me?"

She shuffled her feet a little, squirming in embarrassment before answering. "Well you look like Finn, but you can't be Finn, so you're an impostor." She rushed. "Who looks like Finn. A Finn-postor."

She could do nothing but watch as the achingly familiar face in front of her started to sputter, before breaking out into a bellowing laugh that instantly erased all the stress and pain that lined his face. With his mouth split open in the same wide grin that she'd always loved, she could see the youthfulness peeking through the scars, the brightness that lied dormant behind his eyes. She came to her conclusion before he could even finish laughing.

There was no way this man _couldn't_ be Finn.

But how was this even possible?

"You really are Finn, aren't you?" She whispered, and he finally stopped trying to evade her questions.

"You will never stop being adorable, Rachel. Unfortunately, you'll never stop being stubborn either." The Finn-poster before her smiled and she didn't know how to react.

"This isn't real. This isn't _possible_. There can't be two Finn Hudsons." This didn't make sense!

"You're right, Rachel, which is why I shouldn't be talking to you. It could compromise everything I've set out to do here." He placed his hands on her shoulders and looked into her eyes; trapping her there in his gaze while she tried to make sense out of the impossible. What did he mean by all this? How could one person be so cryptic? "All you have to do now is walk away. You can't tell anyone about seeing me, especially the other Finn, or else we're going to have some serious problems." It was too easy to look in his eyes and forget that this wasn't the Finn she knew. He looked so similar, but they couldn't be more different.

"Why are you here? How did you get here?" She needed to know how any of this was real.

"I can't tell you, Rach. You just have to trust me." She didn't want to accept that as an answer but she had no other choice.

"I want to help you." She _needed_ to help him. She couldn't explain it, she just wanted to know as much as possible about this stranger. "I know I can help you, please let me."

A flare of panic shot through his gaze and he immediately shook his head as he backed away from her. "No, that's not possible, I'm sorry."

"Why not? You obviously need some kind of help and you know that you can trust me."

"You don't understand, Rachel, you're life is too important to sacrifice for any reason and I_ can't_ lose you again." His words confused her; in fact, his whole existence confused her and she was starting to get exasperated with this walking, talking enigma. Nothing in her logical mind could explain his existence in her world, so she succumbed to the theory of Occam's Razor: When logic fails, you go with the simplest answer.

"Are you a robot?" She asked suddenly, needing to discern his origin.

"What? No!"

"What about an alien? Did you take Finn's form?"

"Rachel, what are you talking about?" He asked, exasperated.

"I'm trying to figure out what you are!"

"I'm a human being!" He shouted, his hands in the air. "I should have just listened to Artie and kept my mouth shut, this is messing everything up now!" She analyzed his vague way of speaking and started to notice a pattern. He was always speaking in the wrong tense and was trying desperately to keep as much information from her as possible. He looked like Finn but at the same time he might as well have been a different person completely.

"Are you from, like, a parallel universe or something?" He stopped pacing immediately and gave her a hard stare, almost as if he was looking straight through her.

"If I was, would you stop asking me questions?"

"I think I have a right to know..."

"No, Rachel," he interrupted. "You _don't_ have the right to know, not where I come from. No freedom. No information. I'm trying to change things here, to ensure a future for all of us. You don't want to know what happened to me. You don't want to know how I got here. All you need to know is that I'm here to complete my mission and I can't have any distractions, which includes you. I'm sorry."

"So," she couldn't get over the fact that she was actually _right_. "You really are from another dimension?" He nodded. "And the other Finn can't know you're here?"

"No. It would ruin everything. This has to stay a secret, Rachel, can you handle it?"

"I think so." She said softly, but saw the look in Finn's eye. He was deadly serious about this, so she had to be too. "I mean, your secret is safe with me, Finn. And I hope you know that I'm willing to do anything to help you execute your mission, whatever it is."

For a moment he didn't say anything, just stood there staring at Rachel while she was busy staring at the scars that lined his face. She wondered how he got them, and if his world was as violent as she imagined it to be. How old was he? What kind of things had he lived through that had changed him so drastically? It was still so much to wrap her head around that she could barely believe it was real, but she knew deep down that she could trust him. He was still Finn, after all.

"You were always _so_ _beautiful_." The words were whispered so low under his breath that she could barely hear them, but she tried to focus on the small kiss he planted on her forehead instead of his vague words. She ached to know more about Finn's scarred doppelganger, but she knew she shouldn't be asking him any more questions. It was her job to keep his secret safe and the less she knew, the better for him.

"I have to go, but can I ask you one question?" She nodded with enthusiasm, happy to provide some kind of information for him.

"Of course."

"What day is today?"

"Um, it's Wednesday." She said, shrugging her shoulders while Finn frowned. "Why?" He looked like he was about to answer, but she could hear a familiar car horn beeping behind her and she turned around to see Finn's busted blue pick-up truck pull up to the side of the road where she was standing. He rolled down the car window and spoke directly to Rachel with his trademark smile.

"Hey, you want a ride home?" She started to panic and turned to tell the other Finn to run, but when she looked towards her companion, she was disappointed to find herself standing alone on the sidewalk. He had been standing there with her mere seconds ago and now she was here all alone. Was he ever even here at all? Had she imagined the whole thing?

Of course she'd imagined it! How gullible could she be? It was all just a daydream; just a shockingly realistic daydream that made her doubt everything she had ever known about time and space and alternate universes.

"Rachel?" Finn was still calling her from the car and she could do nothing but stare around her wildly for some kind of proof that she wasn't certifiably insane. Feeling more than a little foolish, she climbed into Finn's truck and took a deep, cleansing breath before she turned to face her ex-boyfriend. Her eyes raked over every inch of his face and he was still as youthful and scar-free as he'd been earlier that afternoon. Gone was the stress that lined his eyes, and his smile never faltered. This was the real Finn she knew in her heart; not the desperate, scarred man she had imagined meeting this afternoon.

It had to be a symptom of the stress she was experiencing in her life. Graduating high school, breaking up with Finn, moving to New York to start her career; all of these important life-changes were catching up to her and making her crazy.

Yeah, that had to be it.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Finn asked her as he pulled onto the road and she forced herself to smile for his benefit while she shrugged.

"Yeah, I'm fine, I guess, just tired." All of a sudden, the tires on Finn's truck squealed in protest as he slammed on the breaks, skidding the truck to a full stop right in the middle of the road. Rachel screamed slightly as the shock registered, and Finn reached over to grab her hand to see if she was okay.

"Are you alright? Bitch came out of nowhere!" Finn ran his hand against the side of her face to see if she was okay. She leaned into his touch, grateful for his quick reflexes as she tried to slow her racing heart. When she looked up to see what obstacle had blocked their path, she found herself staring into the bright green eye of a masked blonde, who was currently standing directly in front of the grill of the truck, shooting Rachel the most hateful glare she had ever witnessed. Two men stood at the sides of the road, flanking her while she stood in front of a makeshift barricade. Finn rolled down his window and started to yell at her, but Rachel couldn't keep her eyes off of the blonde's face, or the mask that she wore that barely covered the scars creeping up her neck.

_More scars. . . _She thought to herself as the woman finally moved out of the way, letting the car pass by. When Finn drove by her, Rachel was able to see her face at a different angle and she almost gasped out loud when she realized that she actually _recognized_ that woman.

It couldn't be. . .

"Take me home, Finn." She said as a wave of dizziness hit her where she sat. "I need to lie down." That bright green eye full of hate was the only thing she could see in front of her as house after house passed by.

"Are you alright, Rach?" He asked, concerned, but all she could do was shake her head.

"I don't know. I just want to be left alone." She could tell that Finn was hurt, but she couldn't even find the strength to console him in any way; her mind was too filled with the impossible for anything rational to make sense. "I need to rest."

"Okay." He drove her home and offered to help her inside, but she declined. She needed to be alone so she could think, and being around this Finn was making it difficult to focus on the other one. "Ill see you tomorrow, right? Graduation practice?"

"Yeah, yeah," she said distracted. "See ya." She left the car before she could register the hurt on Finn's face and practically ran into the house, heading straight for her room so she could be alone and think.

There were two Finn's currently running around Lima, Ohio for reasons unknown. If that wasn't enough to handle then apparently there were now two _Quinn's_ as well. She felt like screaming when she flung herself onto her bed; tired, confused and utterly clueless.

"This is impossible!" She said to herself as she stared at her ceiling, trying to make sense of it all. "Isn't it?"

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><p>Until next time, <em>sings<em>, don't stop _reviewing_!

Merci mille fois, mes amis!


	4. My Two Finns

DISCLAIMER: I neither own Glee nor the characters. They are the property of Ryan Murphy and Fox. This is purely for fun. Enjoy!

A/N: So sorry this update took so long. I was interviewing for jobs that I don't think I got and writing took a backseat.

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><p><strong>Chapter Four: My Two Finn's<strong>

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><p>He hated having to wake up early. For Finn Hudson, the best thing about graduating high school was the fact that he wouldn't have to wake up early anymore. Rachel had told him that in college you could schedule your own classes, and one of the things he was looking forward to the most was making sure he didn't have to wake up before 9am ever again.<p>

But seeing as this was the last day he would ever have to wake up early, he made the most of it.

It took a while for him to finally pull himself out of bed and stretch his ridiculously long limbs back into regular feeling. He rubbed the gunk out of his eyes before practically dragging himself into the bathroom that he shared with Kurt. Thankfully it was vacant, because he might have to buy some bleach for the brain if he ever walked in on Kurt in the shower again; his hair coiffed with bubbles while he sang Gaga at ear piercing levels. Now he knew to always knock.

While soaking under the steaming water, however, Finn was finally able to clear the rest of the sleep from his mind and focus on his busy day. Today was graduation rehearsal, and one of the last days that all of his friends would be together in one place. Now that high school was over, they were all going to go their own separate ways and move on.

Even Rachel.

His heart ached when he thought about their breakup yesterday, and the depressing inevitability of their relationship. He loved her so much, and he knew that she loved him back, but now that they were broken up again he could already feel her slipping away from him. Yesterday she had seemed so distant and distracted; right after they had broken up she had run away from him without explanation, leaving him standing in the hallways, confused and alone. He didn't understand her behavior, since he thought their break-up would affect her more than it did. Now it seemed like she couldn't even be bothered to care.

He tried not to let Rachel's behavior affect him while he finished getting ready for graduation rehearsal. He had to be at school at 9AM sharp for the line up and he met Kurt in the kitchen so they could carpool to the school together. He tried not to be obvious when he asked Kurt if he'd spoken to Rachel since yesterday, and his step-brother shrugged when he said he hadn't heard from her at all. When they got to the school they headed straight for the gymnasium, where it was filled with the rest of the senior class getting ready for rehearsal to start.

He spotted Mr. Schue talking to Figgins up in the front, with Sue Sylvester and her bodyguards to the side eying the crowd with distaste in their gaze. Quinn and Santana were standing off to the side handing out fliers of information to the seniors, and he spotted Rachel sitting on the pulled out bleachers by the fire exit, gnawing her lip nervously while her eyes darted through the crowd, like she was searching for someone. Kurt tried to pull him over to stand with Blaine, but he needed to know what was up with Rachel. She wasn't as energetic as he thought she'd be on such an important day.

Her eyes rested on his and she startled for a moment before relaxing visibly. He couldn't help but notice that she looked tired; dark circles were rimming her eyes and for a moment he wondered if maybe she was taking the break-up harder than he'd previously thought. The idea gave him solace as he approached her, sitting next to her while her eyes still scanned the crowd.

"Hey," he said softly and she turned to him with a shaky smile. He noticed that she wasn't making eye contact with him and he couldn't help but think that something was wrong.

"Hi."

"Are you feeling okay?" He asked while tucking a wild strand of hair behind her ear. Her blush was light and it gave him hope.

"Not really," she said with a sigh. "I didn't get a lot of sleep last night." She looked up at him and instead of making eye contact, her focus was instead on his face; his cheek primarily. She leaned closer towards him, as if she was trying to count his pores or something, and he finally leaned back, snapping her out of her momentary trance. What was that all about? Maybe she needs a nap?

"I can see that. Anything you want to talk about?" Just because they weren't dating anymore, didn't mean that they couldn't still talk. He wanted them to stay connected, even if they were just friends; he didn't want to know what the world would be like without Rachel in it.

"I don't know if I can, Finn. I'm sorry." To say he was shocked was an understatement. It wasn't like Rachel to keep secrets _at all whatsoever_, so for her not to be able to open up to him, hurt a lot. She was hiding something important from him, he was sure of it.

"What, so now we're keeping secrets from one another? We've been broken up for a day and now you can't trust me?" She recoiled from him as if she were burned, and their peaceful conversation took a drastic one-eighty as her eyes hardened, protecting her and her secrets.

"It's not like that, at all, Finn. You _know_ you can trust me." There was a hint of desperation in her tone that he couldn't understand. Of course he could trust her, she was Rachel, but why wasn't she trusting him in return? "I just need you to believe me when I say that I can't tell you what's going on with me right now. There's a reason, a really _really_ good reason, and one day I'll tell you, but I need to know more first. There's so much I still don't understand."

She looked like she was on the verge of tears and he knew deep down that he couldn't be mad at her for not telling him her secrets. She was obviously very distressed about it and he didn't want to make her more upset, he just wanted to find a reason to still be in her life. He didn't want to be in the dark when it came to Rachel, he didn't want to lose that connection with her.

"Shh, come here." He pulled her in for a hug and she dissolved into tears in his arms. He stroked her hair while she clenched her fists in his t-shirt, holding onto him for dear life. "I'm sorry, Rach. I don't want to fight, I just want to help you."

She sniffled in his embrace and whispered, "I want to help you too."

"What?" She looked at him and for a moment he thought that she might explain her odd behavior, but at that moment Figgins started to address the crowd, and asking them to line up in alphabetical order. People started to break apart and move into place, and before Finn could do the same he got a disconcerting feeling, like he was being watched. He turned around towards the fire exit and noticed a man standing in the door-frame, his eyes on him and Rachel while he stood off in the shadows. His eyes shone in the darkness and he could recognize the familiar outline of his features. There were large, angry burn scars climbing up the side of his face and Finn realized that this was the same man they had bumped into yesterday. The one that Rachel had run after, leaving him alone and heartbroken in the hallways.

He looked strangely familiar. . .

"Rachel, do we know that guy? He's starting to freak me out." Rachel stopped sniffling into his shirt and looked towards the door, her eyes almost falling out of her head in shock when she spotted him. She quickly dislodged herself from his clothes and started to walk towards the door like Finn was no longer there, and he grabbed her by the wrist to stop her from going to him. Who was this guy? What did he want?

"Where do you think you're going, Rach? We have graduation rehearsal!"

"I need to talk to him, Finn. I know perfectly well how to stand in a line and walk up to a stage when my name is called. I've been practicing for it my whole life."

He couldn't help but feel exasperated. Was this guy the secret she was keeping from him? "But, this guy, whoever he is, I don't know, he seems weird. I don't like it. What is he doing here?"

"I don't know Finn, but I need to find out." She pulled her wrist away from him and escaped out of the fire door, where the man had been standing mere moments ago. He could do noting but stare at her as she ran away from him, towards a man he neither knew nor trusted. All of his instincts were screaming at him to run after her, but the second he stepped towards the door a strong hand clamped down on his shoulder and held him in place.

"Nuh-uh. You're not going anywhere, Hudson. Get in line with everyone else." Sue Sylvester's cold voice was enough to frighten even the toughest kid, but Finn refused to back down whenever Rachel was concerned.

"But Rachel-"

"Rachel will have to face the consequences tomorrow when she is unprepared for the ceremony." She interrupted, rudely. "I trust you to fill her in later. Now get in line." Her tone allowed no further argument and Finn dejectedly got in line, having to go through the mind-numbing rehearsal without any clue to Rachel's whereabouts.

In fact, Rachel and the Mystery Man where the only things on his mind throughout the entire morning, the rehearsal be damned. There was something about that man that was too familiar to ignore; maybe if he were able to really see his face he would know. The thought that was really nagging him was Rachel's involvement with this man. Was it a new boyfriend or something? It couldn't be, the man looked too old to be dating someone who was just out of high school. None of it made any sense.

The graduation rehearsal ended at noon, and Rachel still hadn't returned by the time it was over. He knew it wasn't his place anymore to be worried about her whereabouts, but he couldn't help but feel anxious about her connection with the unknown man.

He waited around the school until most of the students had left. Quinn, Santana and a few other people had invited him out to a pre-graduation lunch at Breadstix, but he declined, hoping he could stick around and figure out what Rachel was up to. Maybe it was a top-secret graduation project? Maybe it was a surprise performance? Whatever it was, he wanted to know, and he found himself roaming the eerily quiet hallways by himself, poking his head inside the rooms to find nothing but disappointment.

It was another half an hour of searching before he suddenly heard people talking, and he followed the voices all the way to Sue Sylvester's office. As he got closer to the room, the conversation became clearer to him, and it sounded like Sue was very angry.

"Look, I don't know who the hell you think you are but you need to get out of my office right now before I call in my guards."

"You know you don't want to do that, Sue." Came a familiar voice that he couldn't quite place. "You know you know me, and I can explain it all." Wait, was that Quinn talking? But he just saw Quinn a little while ago, getting into the car with Santana to go out to lunch. What was she doing back already?

"I don't know what kind of games you think you're playing Fabray, but get rid of the Phantom mask if you want me to take you seriously." There was a beat of silence before Finn heard Sue's shocked gasp. "Quinn, what happened to you. . .?"

"I'm not the Quinn Fabray you know, Sue." Too intrigued to let this conversation slide, Finn inched closer to the room and got on his hands and knees, crawling up to the windows that lined her office and trying to be as quiet as possible. He lifted his head up high enough to clear the windows and looked into the office lined with trophies. There in the middle of the room was the woman from yesterday, the one in the mask who had stopped them in the road. With the mask removed he could see the scars on her face, even worse than the mystery man, contrasting greatly with the delicate Fabray features.

How was this woman Quinn Fabray?

"I don't understand." Neither did Finn.

"I know what you're planning during Graduation." Finn watched as all the blood drained from Sue's face as it grew hard and deadly serious.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Sue said.

"Yes you do, so don't play stupid. How do you think I got these scars?" Sue's icy blue eyes narrowed as Finn's only grew larger with shock. What the hell was going on here?

"So, what are you going to do, stop me?"

"No." Quinn leaned forward until her palms laid flat on the table. "I'm going to help you. The bomb _will_ go off during graduation tomorrow, and then you're going to be the most powerful woman on the entire planet."

"How do you know all of this?" Sue shook her head while her voice was filled with wonder.

"You told me yourself." She said smugly. "Ten years in the future."

Finn backed away from the window as quickly and as silently as he could, climbing to his feet as he started to run straight for the exit. So many things were racing through his head it was hard to process it all. Graduation was tomorrow, and apparently Sue was planning some kind of explosion, but why? And was that woman really Quinn, from ten years in the future? How was any of this even possible?

He knew one thing, though. He had to find a way to stop this attack before anyone got hurt.

* * *

><p>24 hours. Finn had exactly 24 hours to try and neutralize the attack at Graduation tomorrow. This was the moment he'd been planning for ten whole years and now he only had 24 hours to execute it without creating a time paradox that could destroy the entire universe.<p>

Easier said than done.

It had been hard trying to find a place to sleep after escaping from Rachel the day before. He had heard the familiar roar of his old truck coming down the road and he'd bolted at top speed, hoping that he hadn't been spotted by his younger counterpart. It was rude to run away from Rachel without even saying goodbye, but he was in enough trouble for getting her involved in the first place and he still didn't know how that would affect things. So far the universe hadn't imploded yet, so as far as he was concerned, he was on the right track.

At least he'd been able to talk to her, and touch her, and do the things he had only dreamed about since her tragic death. All the nights spent wishing he could look into her eyes or see the sunlight shining off of her hair one more time had come true. He'd gotten his wish. Now he had to make sure it wasn't all in vain.

Thankfully, he still remembered where Burt kept the spare key for the tire shop, and he broke in after hours to sleep on the comfy couch in Burt's office. He took one look at the desk and almost cried at the picture of Burt and his mother at their wedding. He kissed the little picture of his mother before he slipped into shaky dreams where his friends couldn't be saved no matter how many times he tried to save them. Maybe it was inevitable; for the rest of eternity time would continually loop for him as he tried and tried to save his friends only to be tortured when his plans failed. He woke up in a cold sweat and headed out into the streets of Lima before the sun even rose.

He had some serious thinking to do about tomorrow, and how he would be able to execute his plan.

First and foremost, he needed to perform some reconnaissance on the school. He needed to know where his entrances and exits would be during the ceremony, and the only way to know that was to scope the school during rehearsal today. He walked through the empty hallways and watched as the parking lot filled up with students for their graduation rehearsal. He could remember this day well; him, Rachel, Kurt and Blaine had been inseparable while they teased Quinn and Santana for being Sue's slaves and handing out fliers.

Speaking of Sue, he needed to figure out if she was out of her office so he could do some poking around. There had to be some way to prevent the attack from happening, and her office would be the first place to look. But when he peeked into the auditorium to make sure Sue was occupied, he noticed his younger self and Rachel, standing off to the side alone having a conversation that was in no way familiar to his old memories.

_Oh shit. _He thought to himself. _Nice paradox, jackass._

It couldn't be _that bad_ that this universe was slipping into a tangent, right? The whole point of his mission was to change the course of time, so his interaction with Rachel yesterday couldn't have done that much damage to the time line. As long as he stopped the attack tomorrow, none of this would matter anyway.

Or at least, he hoped so.

Sue was definitely occupied as far as he was concerned, so he was about to leave before he realized that his younger self had spotted him once more. Quickly he bolted from the gymnasium and headed for Sue's office, which was unfortunately blocked off by some of Sue's bodyguards. They took one look at him and started to approach him while he reached for the gun in his back pocket. Maybe if he could take out some of these guys now it would make tomorrow a lot easier for him.

"Oh there you are, I've been looking all over for you!" A bright and familiar voice could be heard behind him before he could remove his weapon, and the bodyguards backed up from him as Rachel stepped forward. "Did you get lost? Mr. Schue needs you to check out the A.V equipment in the gym before rehearsal starts, it's this way." She took Finn by the arm and led him away from the guards as he cursed his luck. With graduation only a day away there was no way to implement a real tactical attack; he had no back-up or firepower, all he had was a gun and his vengeance.

"What do you think you're doing?" He hissed at her while she pulled him away from the hallway. "I need to get into that office."

"No, what do you think you're doing?" She turned around as fast as a whip crack, poking him in the chest hard with a stern look on her face. "I saw that gun in your pocket and the Finn I know and love would never carry a concealed weapon like that."

"Well, I'm not the Finn you knew anymore. I've changed Rachel, and I'm here for a reason."

"Yeah, a reason you can't tell me. A reason that requires you to have a gun in your possession at all times."

"I need to get out of here. Now that the guards have seen me here it's not safe." Instead of letting go, she pulled him out of the school and right up to her car in the parking lot.

"Get in," she ordered. He refused to move.

"Rachel, you have to get back inside and go to graduation rehearsal. You're changing way too much. . ." Her eyes flashed with curiosity and he felt like he was trapped under her control once more. Being around Rachel was completely detrimental to the mission that was supposed to be saving her life.

"Changing what?"

"The time line, the way things are supposed to happen. You're supposed to be inside the gym at rehearsal with me and your friends, completely oblivious as to why I'm here."

"And why are you here?" He shook his head at her stubbornness and looked up to see a figure staring at him from across the parking lot. His blood turned into ice when it stepped forward into the light and he saw the bright white mask from across the parking lot.

No, it couldn't be. . .

"Rachel, I need you to get in the car." His voice was as low and he couldn't control the inkling of fear that seeped into his tone.

"That's what I've been saying!" The figure started to walk towards them and help up a weapon that was definitely not from 2012.

"Get in now!" He ducked into the car as the bullets started flying across the lot, and Rachel screamed as she spotted Quinn Fabray from the future trying to shoot her car. "Drive!" Finn roared, and Rachel took off like a bullet, screaming every time a bullet hit the side of her car.

"My car," she moaned as they drove out of harms way. "I'll have to tell my dad's it happened while dropping off Santana in Lima Heights Adjacent." She was breathing heavily and peeking out at Finn from the corner of her eyes. He didn't want to have to explain all of this; it would only cause more problems and possible paradoxes but he didn't care anymore. Quinn was here, which meant that the Sue from his time knew what he was up to in the past and now he had someone hunting him down like an animal when all he wanted to do was save them all.

For years after the accident Quinn had tried to contact him, and beg him to join her and Sue in a position of power. Every single time he told her the same thing; _I'm going to save them, save us, you don't need to work for her_. But Quinn had been pulled into Sue's corrupt idea of the world. She was here to make sure the bomb went off as planned, which was just another problem he had to worry about.

"Finn, what the hell was that? Why was Quinn shooting at us?"

"That wasn't the Quinn you know, Rachel. She's from my time."

"Well what's her problem? She can't possibly still be upset over us! Do we get married in this other dimension or something?"

He ran a hand over his face in exhaustion. "No, Rachel, I'm not from another dimension, I'm from the future."

She stopped the car short and it was so sudden and violent that Finn almost slammed into the front console. He looked up at her and she was staring at him with bright eyes and awe in her gaze.

"You're from the future?" She said, her voice soft and full of wonder. "You have to tell me, Finn, do I make it on Broadway? Am I a star like I always wanted? Have I been on TV or worked in the industry at all?" Her eyes were so full of hope it almost killed him to think of her actual fate. What was he supposed to say to her?_ Sorry Rachel, you're going to die tomorrow before any of your dreams came true?_

Instead he leaned toward her and pushed her bangs to the side, kissing the smooth skin on her forehead while he closed his eyes against the truth he knew in his heart. If he failed in his mission tomorrow, this talented, beautiful, precious girl won't even have a future. It only strengthened his resolve to continue on with his mission, no matter how many obstacles he had to face.

He didn't care if he had to take down Quinn, Sue and her guards with his bare hands, Rachel will have the future of her dreams. He couldn't tell her the truth, but he couldn't lie to her either, so he decided not to do either.

"I can't tell you, It would spoil the surprise." He knew the second it came from his mouth that she would interpret it as a positive thing, and she looked so excited he thought she might explode with happiness. He ignored the sick feeling in his gut at his horrible cover-up as Rachel continued to drive. He knew he had to come up with something to stop tomorrow's attack from happening, but how? There was so little time but so much to do. He looked over at his companion, so peaceful in her ignorance of tomorrow's events, but so willing to help him out. He knew it was wrong, but it was his last chance.

"Rachel, I think I might need your help."

* * *

><p>Merci mille fois mes amis!<p> 


	5. The Bitter Truth

DISCLAIMER: I neither own Glee nor the characters. They are the property of Ryan Muphy and FOX. This is purely for fun. Enjoy!

A/N: Did anyone see Brittany mention building a time machine on the S3 promo? I almost died!

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Five: The Bitter Truth<strong>

* * *

><p>"I think I might need your help." Rachel registered his words as they maneuvered through the streets of Lima and she could still hear the gunshots reverberating in her head as she drove on auto-pilot, her mind racing faster than ever before. That was the same woman she had seen the day before, she was sure of it, and now more than ever she was positive that it truly was another version of Quinn Fabray, just like the man next to her was a version of the Finn she knew and loved.<p>

"My help? What could I possibly do to help you? I have no idea whats going on right now!" She knew her voice sounded borderline hysterical but she couldn't help it; too much had happened over the past 24 hours and it only seemed to be getting worse.

"Listen, I want to explain it to you but there are too many risks!" He tried to explain but she cut him off violently by slamming on the breaks on an empty side street. When she turned to face him, she could practically feel the fire burning behind her eyes.

"I don't care about the risks, Finn! I just got shot at and you're claiming to be from the future! If you want my help you have to start explaining yourself. _Now_." She expected him to argue. She expected him to try and bolt from the car like he had done once before. She expected him to close himself off and refuse to answer her.

Instead, he looked down at her with an expression that broke her heart as he visibly deflated. He looked older than ever before as the stress-induced wrinkles at his temples began to gather. He looked so tired. He looked so defeated.

"I'll tell you whatever you want to know, Rachel. I don't know what I'm supposed to do anymore. I never planned for this." He covered his eyes with his hands and there was nothing but quiet in the small car. The only sound she could hear was the rumble of the engine and the sound of her own heart pounding.

They stayed like that for a few minutes while Rachel tried to control her racing heart. She waited patiently for Finn to re-emerge from his torment but he was frozen in the passenger's seat, unmoving, and Rachel took the liberty of starting up the car again and navigating the roads leading back to her house. Her fathers were at work for the day and it was barely lunch time. They would have all the privacy they needed there.

She lead Finn into her house and he was still oddly quiet; she noticed a combination of sadness and stress radiating off of him in waves as they walked through her house and up to her bedroom. She was nervous to be alone with him. For the past day he was all she had thought about and now that they were finally alone together, with no distractions, she barely knew what to say to him. She wanted her answers but he looked so upset she didn't know where to start.

So she started off with a question that had been plaguing her since she'd caught him in the hallway with Sue's bodyguards. She sat next to him on her bed and she noticed him running a hand over her bedspread with his eyes closed. Nidging him softly in the side, she waited until he opened his eyes and his attentions were fully directed towards her.

"So, what were you doing with that gun, Finn?" Once more his eyes closed, and he opened them again after a deep breath and stared directly into hers. His eyes were listless, empty; a void where no emotion could be seen. This wasn't the Finn she knew.

"What exactly do you think I came back here for, Rachel?"

She shook her head quickly, anger entering her tone. "No, you said you would explain things to me. You can't answer a question with a question!"

"What do you want to know, Rachel? The truth or a sugar-coated version!" He stood up from the bed and stood across from her, all six feet of him, and she had to crane her neck up as he towered over her. "I came back to kill someone, Rachel."

She stifled her gasp with the back of her hand as he started to pace, back and forth. "No. That can't be true, you would never. . ."

"I am not the boy you once knew, Rach!" He interrupted, scaring her into silence. "Something terrible is going to happen tomorrow, something that I have to stop, no matter what the cost is."

"Like what?" She asked, incredulous. What had happened to the sweet, generous boy she loved? "What could possibly happen that would warrant such a drastic deed?" He was silent again and her growing anger at the situation was starting to flare. "You said you would explain yourself to me, Finn. Don't go silent on me now."

He made eye contact with her once more and nodded. "Something is going to happen at graduation tomorrow. Sue is organizing the whole thing. Originally it was a simple plan that was supposed to bring her publicity, but it wound up changing the entire course of history. I can't let it happen again. She has to die."

"No." She said firmly, her resolve set in stone. "There has to be another way. Death is never the answer."

He scoffed at her, the bitterness seeping into his town. "You don't know what you're talking about. I've seen it, Rach. I know what happens to this town, to the country, to the _world_. You think your future is nothing but sunny Broadway dreams but it's not." He looked like he wanted to continue, but he closed himself off, breaking eye contact with her and looking away.

She didn't know what Sue was planning for tomorrow, but it was definitely something that made her hackles rise, especially after Finn's cryptic descriptions. She wondered if it had anything to do with the wicked scars that crept up his neck and onto his cheek. They intrigued her, but she was too shy to ask about them.

"So you're telling me that you came back ten years from the future to stop Sue from pulling off a publicity stunt?" After a few tense moments he faced her once more and nodded his head, before sitting next to her on the bed once more. He looked as tense as a taut wire that was ready to snap and she wanted so badly to help him, but didn't know how.

"Basically." She couldn't tell if he was lying or not, but to be honest, he had shared more with her than she'd anticipated, so she shouldn't complain. "I don't even know if it'll work but I have to try." He wrapped an arm around her and pulled her body close to his. She buried her head in his chest and took a deep inhale. He still smelled exactly the same.

All of a sudden, she felt his hands clamp on her upper arms and he pulled her out of his embrace so fast she thought she might have whiplash.

"Run away with me." He said, his voice deep and authoritarian.

"What?" She wasn't following his logic.

"Call me; the younger me. Tell him you want to skip graduation altogether and have a final weekend away. _Alone._ He'll agree to it, I know it. You'll be safe and far away from here." He was urging her to agree with him but she couldn't just run away when she knew she could try to help.

"No way! I promised I would help you and that's exactly what I plan on doing. What kind of publicity stunt could she possibly pull?"

"Rachel, please, listen to me!"

"You're still not telling me something." Her eyes narrowed and she backed away from his grasp. "Something important."

He ran a hand over his tired face and she didn't know if she could fully trust this man. Sure, Finn had kept secrets from her in the past; big secrets like Quinn being pregnant and losing the big-V to Santana. She had always been able to trust him before, but she couldn't help but feel like this was something _bigger_. How else could death be the only option?

She had chills as he slowly approached her once more, trapping her against the bed as he inched closer to her. The air was electric between them as he placed a hardened hand on her cheek. The scars from his face crept all the way down to his extremities and she tore her eyes away from them only to get caught up in his tortured gaze. "Rachel, I broke every rule that Artie had ever taught me since I've arrived here. I should have focused on the mission from the beginning, especially when I realized how little time I had. Instead I found you immediately, getting mixed up in your life when I came back to try to help."

"Artie?" She said softly. "What does he have to do with this?"

"He's the one that built the time-machine that sent me here. We were working together to try and stop tomorrow from happening. I was supposed to come back with ample time to plan a counter-attack against Sue, but now I'm basically out of time. Graduation is in less than 24 hours and nothing I've previously planned will work anymore. I could create a paradox. I might have done that _already._"

She shook her head, trying to absorb the influx of information. "So that woman earlier, was she really Quinn?"

He nodded his head grimly and his hand had not yet left her face. He was achingly gentle with her, like the slightest pressure on her skin would break her. "Yes. She was sent back by Sue to stop me, I know it. They have the machine now so who knows how many there are here, wandering around and waiting for tomorrow. They killed Artie while I was jumping here. He never had a chance." He said, the ache in his tone apparent as she took in more vital information.

"If Artie died, how do you plan on getting back to your time?"

His mouth was a thin, grim line before he answered. "I'm not going back, Rachel. I don't know if Quinn knows this but the machine that Artie built was only meant to make one-way trips. This was a suicide mission from the start."

"Don't say things like that!" She screamed, getting anxious. "We're going to figure something out."

"No, _I'm_ going to figure things out. I knew what I was getting into, what I would sacrifice. This was everything I had ever planned for. You're going to stay as far away from graduation as possible tomorrow." He pulled away from her and he seemed to have calmed down. He was more focused now, determined, as if his resolve had been set. "I can't let anything happen to you, Rachel. I made a promise before I came here. Even if it means risking my own life, I have to protect you."

"Finn, you're starting to scare me." She said, her voice shaking slightly. "You're the one who asked for my help and now you're pushing me away. What kind of publicity stunt is Sue planning?"

She thought she could see a slight sheen gloss his eyes as he ignored her questions. "I never stopped loving you, you know that?" He said, an ancient pain crossing his features. "Being with you again is like a miracle. Even if tomorrow doesn't work, at least I got to do this one last time." Before she could question him his hands were on her face once more, pulling her in for a kiss that was filled with a kind of desperation she had never felt before. He held onto her like a vice and she was too stunned to reciprocate. It was over almost as quickly as it started and she felt nothing but awkward as they stood in her bedroom alone, staring down one another while a million new questions raced through her head.

Before she could voice them all, she heard the front door open and close with a slam as anxiety rolled through her in waves. How could her dads be home so early?

"Rachel?" She heard Finn, the younger Finn, calling her name downstairs while she and future Finn shared matching looks of horror. "Rachel, are you here?"

"Shit!" The Finn in front of her cursed and bolted into her closet quickly while she could hear heavy footsteps pounding up the stairs. She had forgotten that Finn knew where her family hid the spare key, and he was probably angry that she had missed graduation rehearsal earlier that day. Just as the closet door slammed shut, the other Finn burst into her room, looking as wild and disheveled as his future counterpart.

"Rachel! I've been looking all over for you!" She knew she had to get rid of him quickly because of her other guest and their pressing issues, so she started to rush an apology.

"I'm sorry I left graduation rehearsal so abruptly, Finn. Why don't you call me tonight and catch me up on what I missed. I'm kind of busy at the moment."

His eyes narrowed as he looked around the room. "What could you possibly be doing, Rach? I need to talk to you. It's important."

She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. She was so bad at keeping secrets, especially from Finn, but she had to hold her ground. "I know and I promise we can talk later but now is not a good. . ."

"Something is going to happen at graduation tomorrow!" Deja vu struck her like a speeding mack truck. The other Finn had spoken the same exact words only minutes ago.

"What?" She asked, too shocked to care that he had interrupted her. How did he know about graduation?

"I heard Coach Sylvester talking in her office. She was with that weird lady we saw yesterday in the road." She looked momentarily at the closet with wide eyes. "Rachel, they said they wanted to blow up the school."

It was as if all the blood in her body had instantly frozen into ice. She felt numb, but not the blissful kind of numb where everything was fuzzy and warm. This was the kind of freezing numbness that felt like stab wounds in her skin. A cold, dull ache that seeped into the deepest cracks in her mind.

She understood now. She understood_ everything._

The scars that wrapped around his body and crept up over his face, the cryptic way he spoke about her. The hidden messages in every word he spoke, the underlying panic when they discussed graduation. The desperate kiss he had laid on her only moments before.

She _knew_ that he'd been hiding something.

"Rachel? Baby, talk to me." Finn was waving his hand in front of her face and she snapped out of her momentary trance only to focus on his young, fresh and scar-free face. She traced her fingers over the flawless skin and looked at the panic swirling in his eyes. "I don't care what I have to do, Rachel. I'm going to make sure this doesn't happen tomorrow." In that one moment, she saw in his eyes that he was deadly serious. It was the same look that had been shining in the other Finn's eyes since the moment she'd met him. It scared her to death. "I have to protect you."

She didn't realize she was crying until she felt the teardrops dripping off of her chin. "No!" It was bad enough that one Finn was resolved to die, she didn't want the boy she loved to turn into the man she now knew. "Please, just run with me, Finn. We'll call a tip in to the police about Sue's plan and skip town. No one will miss us. We can even invite our friends if you want. Just don't go to graduation tomorrow."

"Are you kidding me, Rachel? The woman I saw in that office claimed to be Quinn Fabray from _ten years in the future_. Who knows what could possibly happen to our friends and family? We have to figure out a way to stop this."

It was as if her worst nightmares were coming true right in front of her face. Now both Finns were resolved to stopping Sue tomorrow no matter how much she begged, and there was nothing she could do to stop it. She was at a loss for words when she looked up, and noticed a figure creeping out of the closet. Before she could react, her Finn was cracked over the head with the butt of Finn's gun and immediately slumped to the ground unconscious. She was furious when she looked up and the older Finn was pacing around the room maniacally, rubbing his temples as he put away his weapon.

"What the hell did you do that for?" She normally wasn't one for cursing, but she couldn't help but get angry at him for hurting Finn without a reason. She dropped to her knees and placed his head on her lap gently while the other Finn continued to pace.

"He knows too much. This isn't good. This isn't good at all. . ."

"You lied to me," she hissed. "You kept this from me on purpose."

"You weren't supposed to know!"

"It was more than just graduation," she didn't even want to look at him, instead focusing on Finn's face and the swelling bump on the back of his head. She tenderly stroked the hair away from his forehead and spoke as evenly as possible. "You lied to me about my future."

He stopped pacing then, turning around and dropping to his knees in front of her and his younger doppleganger. "I had to. You shouldn't know the truth."

"I'm going to die tomorrow, aren't I?" She asked, her voice hollow. His lack of a response was all she needed to know. "I saw it in your eyes. That desperation, that need to keep me safe. I saw it in his eyes only a few minutes ago." She looked up at him and his eyes were swimming with tears. "That's how you get the scars. You survive."

"Rachel. . .," his voice was hoarse and thick with emotion. "I won't let it happen again. I've lived it every day over and over again for ten years. It's tortured me. If you want to make sure that he doesn't turn into me, you have to avoid the school tomorrow at all costs."

"You survive and we all die. . ." She couldn't help but get lost in the shock that was beginning to cripple her. She looked down at Finn's face and traced the flawless skin over and over again with her fingertips.

"Rachel, I'm going to do everything in my power to stop tomorrow from happening. This is what I've been planning for years."

"What if you can't?" She whispered, not taking her eyes off of the Finn in her arms. "What if you fail and the school blows up anyway? Will he turn into you? Will he have your scars?" She kissed the flawless skin on his cheeks and counted the birthmarks on his face. "You have to promise me you'll stop her. Whatever it takes." Her heart was pounding as she thought about her own death and it's profound effect on the course of Finn's life. Now she understood perfectly why Finn had been carrying a gun. She would pull the trigger herself if she knew that Finn would be safe and happy.

"Rachel, do you understand what needs to be done?" She finally tore her eyes away from the boy in her arms and looked at the man of the future. The man who had crossed time and space just to save her. If she could even be saved.

"Yes. I do."

"I want you to call in that bomb threat tomorrow before graduation, whether or not you decide to come to the ceremony."

"I'm going," she said, her mind already made up. "Nothing you or the other Finn will say can change my mind." He shook his head solemnly, and didn't argue.

"I didn't tell you the truth for a reason. I wanted to protect you, Rachel. No one should have to know their own fate."

"What about you? You're pretty dead set on dying tomorrow."

"I made this choice myself. You're consciously walking into a death trap."

"And _you_ are breathing proof that the past can be changed," she said. "I'm going so I can ensure that I have a future."

"Rachel, please don't do this," he begged. "I came back here to save you."

"Stop worrying about whether or not you can save me and start worrying about saving the world!" She scolded. "You told me, remember? You live in a world without freedom, without peace. I'm obviously not the only one who dies tomorrow so worry about _them_. Finn and I will help you out as much as we can." She stopped stroking Finn's unconscious face and looked right into his eyes. He looked scared. Not as scared as she felt.

"I loved you so much, Rachel. If everything goes as planned tomorrow, then I want you to live a long and happy life. I want you to smile and laugh and sing and grow old. Hopefully it's with me." She wiped the tears away with the back of her hand while he leaned over and placed a simple kiss on her forehead. She understood now the reason for his awkward and desperate kiss from before. Now this was a kiss that was supposed to mean goodbye.

There might not be time for it tomorrow.

"I'll see you at graduation." He whispered and she shut her eyes against the pain in her heart. When she opened them again, he was gone, and she was left all alone with an unconscious Finn still in her arms.

What was she going to do? Tomorrow she was going to die if they didn't figure out a way to stop Sue's plan, and then Finn would become a tortured shell of himself that would be forever hell-bent on suicidal vengeance. Finn had promised her though, both Finns, that they would protect her, but who would protect them? Who was going to protect her friends and family and all the members of the town? Sure it would be easy to skip graduation, but it wouldn't be right, not when there were people's lives on the line.

She had no other choice. She had to go and make sure everyone was safe.

"I love you." She whispered to Finn while he still lay silent in her arms. "I never should have broken up with you. We can try and make it work long distance if you want. After tomorrow is over we can work everything out between us, I promise. I don't ever want to lose you, Finn."

She closed her eyes and prayed that she would have the chance to make it right.

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><p>Remember. . . <em>reviews = love<em>

Merci mille fois mes amis!


	6. Never Let Me Go

DISCLAIMER: I neither own Glee nor the characters. They are the property of Ryan Murphy and FOX. This is purely for fun. Enjoy!

A/N: Only a week left until the season three premiere! Bring on the Finchel!

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><p><strong>Chapter Six: Never Let Me Go<strong>

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><p>Finn's head hurt like hell by the time he finally woke up; he had no idea what had knocked him out in the first place, but he rubbed the dull ache on his head while he his eyes strained against the bright lights. The pillow his head was resting on wasn't the most comfortable pillow he'd ever slept on, but it was warm, and it smelled like Rachel.<p>

When he looked up and found himself staring directly into her red, swollen eyes, he realized the pillow he'd been laying on _was_ Rachel.

"What happened?" He asked groggily while she gasped. He could feel her entire body shaking around him and his head was still pounding. "How did I get on the floor?" The last thing he remembered was coming here to warn Rachel about the attack at graduation tomorrow. So how did he end up lying unconscious in Rachel's lap?

"You hit your head," she said in-between sniffles. "You've been out for almost an hour." He tried to sit up but his head was screaming at him to lay back down in the warmth and comfort of Rachel's lap. She didn't seem to protest as she gently played with his hair, twirling it around in her fingers. When he felt a drop of moisture fall onto his face, he looked up and realized that Rachel was crying.

"Hey," he tried to sit up again and this time it worked, even if he was still a little dizzy. He gathered her into his arms as they sat on the rug next to her bed, and he let her cry into his embrace for a few moments. "I'm fine, baby, you see?"

"Finn," she cried. "What are we going to do about tomorrow?" If it were even possible he held onto her tighter as flashes of Sue's conversation sped through his mind.

"We're going to find some way to stop it, Rach. There has to be a way. We'll call the news, the police, whatever it takes."

"No one will believe us," she moaned. "_I _barely believe us."

"I know, but we have to try. If that doesn't work then we have to at least help as many people as we can." She pulled away from him quickly then, glaring at him like he was the one responsible for this.

"Why do you have to be so brave?" She asked, her voice laced with horror. "How can you be so calm about this?" She waited for him to answer but he couldn't come up with a solid reason. He just shrugged his shoulders and tried to explain.

"I don't know why. I guess I just know that it's the right thing to do." She didn't seem consoled; in fact she looked more upset than ever. "But I promise you, Rachel, that I'm going to keep you safe. No matter what." He knew that they had broken up only yesterday, but nothing, not even the threat of a bomb was going to change the way he felt about her. Even if they never spoke again after graduation, he had to make sure that she was okay. He loved her too much to see her get hurt. "We might be broken up Rachel, but I still love you." He knew saying those words were a mistake but he couldn't take them back now.

The last thing he expected was for Rachel to fling herself at him with her arms outstretched, pulling him in for a kiss that sent sparks shooting through his entire body. Their lips meshed together as he drank her in, and he held onto her with a desperation that he had never felt before. What if the bomb actually went off tomorrow? What if this was the last chance he would ever have to be with her? The thought was almost too much to bear.

"I love you, Finn," she whispered against his lips. "Please don't leave me." He swallowed her sighs in his kisses and reciprocated in earnest. He wasn't going anywhere.

"We're gonna make it, Rachel." He lifted her up in his arms and placed her gently on the bed, but her arms were still wrapped around his neck like a vice. She refused to relinquish her grip on him so he tucked himself as close to her body as space would allow.

For a long time they held each other in silence. Rachel cried into his arms and he allowed her to do this with no interruptions, even though she refused to explain why she was so upset after his staunch reassurance that she would be protected. He tried to console her in every way he knew how, but nothing seemed to alleviate the sadness that plagued her. It was making him anxious about tomorrow; more anxious than he already felt.

The afternoon stretched out in front of them as they wasted it away in the peace of each other's arms. He didn't know how much time had passed around them, but he was quite lost in his own thoughts about tomorrow's graduation ceremony. As difficult as it was to believe the strange woman he had seen in Sue's office, there was something in his gut that was telling him that this was real, and he was determined to stop whatever was being planned.

Suddenly, a soft caress on his cheek snapped him out of his thoughts and he opened his eyes to look into Rachel's large brown ones, getting caught up in the torment he saw there. She was worried about tomorrow, he could tell, but there was something about her demeanor that was worrying him. She looked so scared. He wanted to protect her from her fear, but he didn't know how, so he allowed her to stroke the stubble on his cheeks because it seemed to calm her down.

"You know, for someone who wanted to break up with me, you sure don't seem to mind being so close." His words were barely louder than a whisper and her eyes were sad.

"I shouldn't have broken up with you yesterday, Finn. It was a mistake."

"Hey, I thought this was the plan." He tried to reassure her. "You're gonna go to New York and I'm staying in the Midwest for school. This was everything you ever wanted."

"I changed my mind," she said, her voice filled with desperation. "I don't want to lose you, Finn. Not ever."

"That won't ever happen, Rachel," he whispered against her lips, closing in to place the softest of kisses on her lips. Her eyes closed blissfully as he sighed against her. "I'm not going anywhere." He closed his eyes and lost himself in the feeling of his lips on hers, and succumbed to the pull of her body. He wrapped his arms around her tightly, almost afriad to let go as emotions started to run high. He could feel her grabbing at him, his clothes, the collar of his shirt, as if he were about to escape from her grasp at any moment. As if he ever wanted to leave this bed.

"Finn," she whispered, her voice almost a plea. "I want us to make love."

He stopped kissing her instantly, almost afriad he had heard her wrong as he pulled away from her lips. "What?"

"You heard me correctly, Finn. I want us to make love. Right now."

He was at a loss for words. She had always been hesitant when it came to the more intimate parts of their relationship and while he didn't want to push her out of her comfort zone, he couldn't deny how much he wanted it as well. They had tried it only a few times over the past year, but they were moments he would never forget. In fact, seeing as they were supposed to be broken up, he didn't think he would ever have this opportunity again, so there was no way he was turning it down.

"Are you sure about this Rachel?" He knew he was an idiot for asking, but he had to make sure she was alright with this. He had never pushed her into it before and he didn't want to start now. "I mean, you say you want us to be together, but what's going to happen after graduation tomorrow? What about New York and Purdue?"

"Finn, there might not be a life waiting for me after graduation. We could die tomorrow. This might be our last chance to show how much we love one another."

"Don't say that, Rachel. We're going to work something out. Everything's going to be okay. . ."

"You don't know that!" She screamed, narrowing her eyes at him while she got lost in her own hysteria. "People are going to die tomorrow, Finn. Tonight is all we have left." She reached forward and grabbed his hand, placing it over her heart where her hands rested on his. "And I refuse to take our last night together for granted."

Before he could protest, she closed the distance between them with a fiery kiss that sent Finn's body ablaze. How one small girl could have such power over him, he would never understand. She was so small in his arms, but she had so much life in her it was hard to imagine it all fitting into such a small package.

"Right now, all I want you to do is love me," her hand dipped down past the waist of his pants and rested it on his crotch while his eyes almost rolled back into his head from the pleasure. "And never let me go."

"I'm not going anywhere," he said, determined, his hands slinking up the sides of her blouse and teasing the soft skin of her ribs. He pulled the shirt over her head and captured her lips the second she was free from the clothing. They wrestled the clothes off of one another, always touching, never separating, like they were joined together at the soul. He grabbed a condom from his wallet just to be safe as she kissed his all the way from his neck to his belly button.

Her touches were no longer gentle and shy like they once were; their hands and their bodies moved together with a building passion that was almost indescribable. Her body sang to him in; pulling him in like her voice always did. Once their clothing was all gone, Rachel lay beneath him and her perfect body glowed in the waning light of the sun. Her fathers would be home from work soon but at that moment, there was no need for worry or panic. As much as he hated to admit it, Rachel was right; this might just be their last chance to be together. This moment would be seared into his brain forever as she shyly opened her legs, and he rested himself above her.

He tried to stifle a low moan as he entered the warmth of her body, feeling more connected with her than ever before. They moved together in tandem, their eyes never leaving the heated gaze that connected them. Every sigh, every moan, would be etched into his memory forever. This was the kind of love he would never forget.

He could feel his body start to unravel as the passion between them grew too thick to ignore. With a keening cry, Rachel dug her nails into his shoulders and snapped, panting and sighing as he continued to pump toward his own completion. Looking down into the peaceful joy of Rachel's face was enough to send him into his own orgasm and he felt the sweat dripping down his brow as she shyly kissed his collarbone, bringing him down from his ecstasy.

They laid perfectly still in each other's arms for a long while after that. Finn was almost hesitant to let go of her, and break the sacred connection he'd felt with her. That was something he would never forget. He could hear her sniffle quietly, trying to hide it but failing. He could always tell when she was upset, especially now. There was reason to be. He was upset too, he wasn't going to show it though. He had to be strong for her; for them. Tomorrow was going to be a day they would never forget.

A buzzing of a cell phone snapped them out of the quiet of her trance. Rachel wiped the lingering tears away while she reached over for her phone. She scrolled through her Blackberry until she found the message.

"My dads are on their way home. They're bringing Thai. Should I ask them to pick you up something?" Her eyes were wide with hope. He knew she wanted him to stay as she started to gather their clothes together and get dressed.

However, his own mother was heavy on his thoughts and he knew in his heart that he should spend the evening at home with her. He had a feeling in his gut about tomorrow that he could not shake, and he wanted to spend tonight with his family.

"I wish I could Rachel, but I should be with my mom and Burt tonight. One last family dinner, you know?" She nodded her head sadly. She understood, but it was still hard to say goodbye. "How are you getting to graduation tomorrow?" She looked away from him, staring out of her window at the late afternoon sun.

"I don't know. I kind of want to be there early."

"Me too. Thank you for believing me," he said suddenly, and her head snapped back as she stared at him with wide eyes. "About the bomb. And the Quinn from the future. _Future Quinn_." He joked. She wasn't laughing.

"I-," she hesitated, looking torn, like she wanted to say something but couldn't. "I trust you, Finn. You know that."

"I know you do, and trust me when I say that I'm going to do everything I can to help everyone. Tonight won't be our last night together, I promise." He placed a hand on her cheek while she sighed sadly and kissed his palm.

"Don't make promises you know you can't keep." He dropped his hand. "Do you want to give me a ride to school in the morning?"

"Sure. I'd like that." They nodded in unison and she walked him downstairs as they held hands. They lingered in the foyer for a while and Finn had to tear his hands from hers before leaving. He reminded her to call in the bomb threat and they agreed to call the media as well. He left her house after kissing her goodnight, and it was a kiss full of longing and desperation. He wished they had more time.

But they didn't. He knew it in his gut. Every second of the clock brought him closer to the threat of graduation, and as he walked to his truck his heart felt heavier than bricks in his chest.

He got into his car and slammed his fists down on the wheel in frustration before starting the ignition. When he put on the lights he realized that there was something on the windshield of his car. Had he gotten a ticket parking outside of Rachel's house? That had never happened before and he'd parked in this spot dozens of times.

He reached out of his window and pulled the paper into the cabin, unfolding it and trying to read the clumsy scrawl. It kind of looked like his own handwriting as he made out the message.

_If you love her, keep her away from the school tomorrow._

His blood was frozen in his veins like ice as he reread the message over again in the dim light of his car. Who had left this here for him? How did this person know about the attack? About his relationship with Rachel? His heart was hammering in his chest and the sound of it was all he could hear as he drove home on auto-pilot. On the way home, he stopped by the pay phone outside of the movie theater and placed an anonymous call in to the police. Then he called the local news station and warned them about tomorrow, just like he promised Rachel. The note from the stranger was still clutched in his hands as he finished the calls and drove home.

Sitting through dinner with his family was almost torture. Listening to his mother and Kurt chart about graduation was going to drive him crazy and part of him wished that he had stayed at Rachel's. He tried to block out the chatter with thoughts of the note and was left feeling more confused than ever before. Someone was trying to warn him about tomorrow, someone who knew what he knew. Who could it be? What did it all mean?

"Finn? Honey are you alright?" His head snapped up and he saw his family staring at him with looks that reflected both concern and confusion. He looked down at his plate and it turned out that he had been stabbing his meatloaf into tiny ground bits of beef while he was lost in thought.

"Yeah, Mom, I'm okay. Just distracted is all." He said, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Don't worry about it, Carole. Finn is still pining over Rachel and the end of their tumultuous love affair." His mother and step-brother shared the same look of sympathy as his temper flared.

"Actually, Rachel and I are back together, thank you very much, and we're stronger than ever before." He stood up and gathered his plate. "Excuse me. I'm going to go to bed early tonight." He dropped off his plates in the sink and stomped off to his room, dropping himself on the bed with a loud sigh and reaching for the note that he had read countless times already. If someone else knew about the attack, then maybe they were willing to help! Maybe he didn't have to bring Rachel into this mess, maybe they _should_ run like the note had mentioned. With a heavy heart and a head full of unanswered questions, Finn set his alarm and fell into an uneasy sleep filled with sirens, strangers hiding in the shadows and the sound of Rachel screaming.

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><p>The sun had barely even risen yet when Quinn found herself in Sue Sylvester's office, still as pristine as it had been in her memories. She stood behind Sue's desk as the Police chief stared Sue down with a ferocity in his gaze that neither woman could ignore. This man meant business, even at this early hour.<p>

"Ma'am, with all due respect, I don't think you're hearing me clearly. We have had three separate bomb threats placed in for tomorrow's graduation ceremony. The local media has been alerted of this as well. We could have a full-scale riot at our hands in less than a few hours if you do not co-operate with us."

"Sir, there is no way we are postponing the ceremony. This is obviously some sort of well-planned prank that's gotten out of hand. What could possibly happen at a simple high school graduation?" Sue lied with her silver tongue as Quinn was distracted by the nostalgia around her. Against the walls were the portraits from Junior and Senior year and she couldn't help but lose herself in the memories of her lost youth. Being back here made her realize exactly how much she had taken for granted when she was queen bee Quinn Fabray. "Besides, I have a top team of bodyguards surrounding me at all times," Quinn smirked and winked her good eye. "There is nothing to fear."

"Well, Coach Sylvester, I couldn't care less if you had the entire United States Marine Corps here to protect you. I care about the safety of the innocent people who just want to see their children graduate. This event will be postponed for a later date."

"NO!" Sue jumped out of her seat with her eyes wide. Quinn could see the traces of her future madness brewing behind them. "I will pull in all the security I have. No one will be allowed inside without clearance by me. I take on full responsibility to secure this school from any harm if you're willing to work with me and give me the manpower I need."

The officer looked hesitant, but conceded Sue with a strong handshake. "If you plan on footing the bill, then it's your responsibility." Quinn watched this transaction play out in front of her and almost felt sick to her stomach as she saw Sue's smile. All of her instincts were screaming at her to stop this from happening, but Sue, the Sue from her time, would _murder_ her if she found out what had happened. . .

No. She was going to be the Queen one day. Once upon a time she'd been the queen of McKinely but if she followed through with the plan, then Sue would make her Queen of the _country_. Maybe even the world. Then it wouldn't matter that her face was scarred forever, because she would be the most powerful woman to ever exist.

All she had to do was go along with the plan.

In less than a few hours, this place was gonna blow.

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><p>Until Next Time. . .Don't Stop, <em>Reviewing<em>!

Merci mille fois, mes amis!


	7. Tempting Fate

DISCLAIMER: I neither own Glee nor the characters. They are the property of Ryan Murphy and FOX. This is purely for fun. Enjoy!

A/N: Get ready for Glee! It's back tonight!

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><p><strong>Chapter Seven: Tempting Fate<strong>

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><p>Rachel didn't sleep at all that night. Every time she closed her eyes another hideous nightmare played out in her head and she willed herself to stay awake in order to avoid the horrible visions. However, sleep eventually took hold of her and she found no solace in the dark depths of her panicked mind. She was terrified about tomorrow and with very good reason.<p>

When her alarm rang promptly at 6am, the same time it rang every day, she did not attack the day with the normal vigor she was accustomed to. The haunting dreams and the threat that lied ahead was too much to ignore as she walked around her house like a zombie, still half-asleep and wanting to wake up from her nightmarish reality.

She kissed her fathers on the cheek while she poured herself some orange juice, feeling restless and distracted. Looking at the clock, she wondered how much time she actually had left before the attack. Would she actually die on this day? Would Finn allow it? Which Finn would be her savior?

"Rachel, honey, are you feeling alright?" Her Papa leaned over and felt her forehead as Rachel tried to avoid eye contact. "You look upset."

"Is it about Finn? Did he take the break-up hard?" Her other father fretted while he looked through the business section of the paper.

"No Daddy, we're fine actually. We decided not to break up after all." Both of her fathers exchanged worried looks as she sipped her juice quietly. She didn't want to eat anything right now; her stomach was currently coiled into tight knots and just the thought of eating made her feel ill.

"Sweetheart, I thought you decided to break up with Finn for the betterment of your future career."

"How are you two going to handle a long-distance relationship when you're in New York and he's still in the Midwest?"

"What kind of future do you expect to have with him?" In that moment she saw Finn's face in front of her eyes, not her Finn but the one from the future; his face scarred, eyes hollow and dead.

"Enough!" She stood up from the table quickly and yelled as her cup of orange juice tipped over, spilling the sticky liquid on an unread portion of her dad's paper. "I don't want to talk about my future right now. I'll be upstairs getting changed." She unceremoniously stormed off, leaving her dad's to clean up her mess in the kitchen while she acted like a spoiled child. The last thing she wanted to do today was fight with her dads, especially because she knew what was about to happen, but the last thing on her mind was the future.

In order to have a future, she had to survive the day.

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><p>Finn looked at the rising sun from the roof of the school, the place he'd been hiding out since he'd arrived here a few days ago from ten years from the future. He knew every entrance in and out of this place, which would be beneficial for later this morning. As the warm summer sun shone down on his face he knew in his heart that he was ready.<p>

This was the moment he'd been waiting for all of his life.

As he stared at the hues of red and orange in the sky he thought about his interactions with Rachel, his past self and the damage he'd done to their world since he'd arrived. Everything he had ever planned with Artie had been thrown to the wayside in his stupidity, and he might have done irreparable damage to the time line by contacting the ghosts of his past.

However, if he found a way to stop the attack from happening then none of it would matter anymore. Maybe these changes were for the best? Maybe Rachel and his younger self could find the happiness that he'd always wished for. Maybe it would be alright in the end.

Or maybe Rachel was _supposed _to die today. Maybe the attack was supposed to happen. Maybe his entire plan was moot because Rachel dying was an undeniable point in time that could never be changed.

He shook his head, trying to chase away the poisonous thoughts. There were too many maybes in this scenario. Too much uncertainty. He gazed down onto the empty football field and could see the news trucks approaching the school from his hiding spot on the roof. Thank goodness the media had taken the threat seriously. The more documentation about today, the better.

He could see cop cars approaching the school in the distance as well. Their sirens were turned off in the early hours of the morning, but the lights were flashing as they pulled into the parking lot and surrounded the school. Finn watched as they set up a perimeter around the grounds and scoffed at their efforts. The bomb was probably already in the school. A perimeter would do nothing for them now but keep them all trapped inside.

Imagine his surprise when he saw Quinn march out of the school in all back with a matching headset, approaching the officers and debriefing them on Sue's security. His eyes narrowed as the cops did exactly as they were told, and he realized that Sue was in control of the police presence here. It felt like bricks were filling his stomach when he realized that the cops would be no help. He was still in this fight alone.

He only hoped that his younger self had followed the directions he'd left in his note and kept Rachel as far away from here as possible. It was the only way he would know for sure that she was safe, even if he was unable to stop the attack from happening. He'd left another note there overnight, just in case his younger self was too thick to follow directions.

As the sun continued to rise steadily in the morning sky, Finn checked his gun for the final time before staring out at the land surrounding him, his eyes heading right for the football field. The place where his friends and family were going to buried if he didn't succeed.

He took a deep breath before retreating back into the school to begin his plan.

* * *

><p>Standing in her pristine pink dress and carrying her folded cap and gown in her large tote bag, Rachel stood in the foyer waiting for Finn to pick her up and bring her to the graduation ceremony of her nightmares. She had lied to her fathers and told them that she needed to arrive early to help the audio club run sound checks so she had an excuse to show up early and try to find Finn. Her dads would be arriving at the ceremony a little before ten. She had less than an hour to try and stop the attack from happening, and the longer she waited the more anxious she became as the clock continued to tick.<p>

At around 9am, Rachel saw Finn's familiar blue truck pull up in front of her house, and when she said goodbye to her dads she gave them both an extra strong hug and a kiss on the cheek. When a single tear fell from her eye her fathers mistook it for nostalgia as they held her for a few quiet moments.

"Oh, Rachel, our golden star, you have nothing to worry about. Graduation is just another step in life and after today you have nothing left to hold you back. We're so proud of you." Rachel faked a smile and said her final goodbye to her dads before stepping out of the house and up towards Finn's truck. Her Papa's words weighed heavily on her mind as she slid into the cabin, and she wondered whether or not she would have a future after today. For all she knew she was walking towards her death.

She looked up at Finn and he looked almost as terrible as she felt. He had dark circles under his eyes and he looked more than a little weary. She understood why though.

"Good morning," she said softly, and he barely acknowledged her as he nodded his head and pulled off onto the road. Finn said nothing, not even a "Hello" or "Don't worry." He just had his eyes on the road the entire time and refused to look at her.

_He must be really stressed out, _she thought to herself as they weaved their way through the streets of Lima. She closed her eyes for a moment and tried to relax as much as possible before they arrived at the school. They still had no idea what they were up against or whether or not their calls about the bomb threat had been taken seriously. When she opened her eyes once more, she realized that they were on a county road that led them south, toward the highway and out of town. She looked over at Finn and noticed something crumpled up in his hands as he gripped the steering wheel and continued forward.

"Finn, where are we going?" She asked. He didn't make eye contact with her and refused to answer, instead pushing his foot on the accelerator harder as they picked up speed. When she saw him turn on the blinker to merge onto the highway, she started to panic. "Finn, what's going on? Why are we getting on the highway?" Instead of answering her he chose to ignore her once more and she felt all the blood drain out of her face at the grim look in his eyes.

"We're not going to graduation, Rachel." His voice was low and it sent chills down her spine.

"_What are you talking about?"_ She screeched, losing her cool in such desperate situation. "What about our friends and our families? What about _them_?"

"I'm sorry, Rachel, but this is the least I can do. I have to keep you safe."

"No, Finn," she begged, "We have to save them all, we promised one another that this was the right thing to do."

"I was wrong. _This _is the right thing to do. Making sure that you don't die today is the right thing to do." His words sent off every warning bell imaginable in her head as they sped south on the highway, putting precious miles in-between them and the school.

"What did you just say?"

"I got a note on the windshield of my car last night, warning me not to go to graduation today. I got another letter this morning but it was different. It said. . " Finn took his eyes off the road for a nano-second and leveled Rachel with a single look. "It said that you were going to die today."

Her blood froze like ice in her veins as he passed her the notes that he was still holding tightly in his fists. She unfolded them and recognized the untidy penmanship perfectly.

_Finn_ had written these notes. The Finn from the future had contacted his past self in a last-ditch effort to stop her from showing up today.

Her heart felt like lead in her chest.

"Stop the car, Finn," she ordered, her voice shaking.

"Rachel, there is no way in hell we're going to that graduation."

"_Stop the car!" _She didn't care that she was screaming at the driver of a vehicle, she needed all motion to just stop before she became nauseous. With a labored sigh, Finn put on his emergency lights and pulled off onto the side of the highway as car after car whizzed by the truck. He put the car in park and turned to face her with a stubborn set to his jaw.

"We can stay parked in this car all day for all I care, we're not going to graduation." He crossed his arms and slipped the keys back into his pocket.

"Finn, you have to bring me to the school."

"Rachel, someone out there obviously knows what's going to happen today. They must have if they sent me these letters as a warning. I refuse to risk your safety in any way. Whoever sent these to me can handle the attack so you need to stay as far away as possible."

"Finn, I know who sent you these letters. It will all make sense if you just let me explain."

"It doesn't matter what you say Rachel, nothing can change my mind. I have to do everything I can to keep you safe."

"Finn, _you're _the one who sent these messages!" She yelled, clamping her hand over her mouth as she let out the big secret. She shouldn't have done that, but there was no other way to get him to understand. He turned to stare at her with confusion clouding his gaze.

"What?"

"It was you the entire time," she said like she was in a dream. "You came back for me, Finn. You came back ten years from the future to save me. You're the one I've been sneaking out to see these past couple of days. You're the one who's been leaving messages on your car. The you from the future is trying to stop this all from happening so you don't have to live through it all again. So I can survive."

Finn stared at her across the silent cabin and it took a few moments for him to respond. "The handwriting. It looked so familiar. . . "

"That's because you're the one who wrote it, Finn. You're here, right now, at the school, trying to keep me away so you can stop it from happening again." She paused, swallowing the lump in her throat before she continued. "I'm _supposed_ to die today, Finn."

"No," he said, shaking his head. "I won't let that happen. . ."

"And I refuse to run away like a coward while you sacrifice yourself for me." She begged him to understand. "I have to go to graduation, Finn. I was _meant_ to go to graduation."

"Why tempt fate, Rachel?" He yelled, slamming his fists on his steering wheel. "Why does it have to be you?"

"It's not just me, Finn. _Everyone dies_. As far as I know, you, Artie, Quinn and Sue are the only survivors." She placed a hand on his arm and she could feel the stress radiating off of him. "We have to go help him. He can't do this all alone." She squeezed his arm and gave him the saddest puppy eyes she could muster.

"Please?"

* * *

><p>The roadblocks were in place. The security had been set up at every entrance. There were men in suits lined up in every corridor on the first floor, with radios that connected directly to the police cruisers outside. Finn stood in the third floor Chemistry lab, the same place where he had slaved away at the technology that had brought him here, as he looked at the cars below. He didn't see his blue truck, so he hoped that his younger self had taken his messages seriously. The last thing he needed was for Rachel to show up and ruin his already shaky plan. There could be no distractions if this was going to work, and the clock continued to tick towards ten AM, when the ceremony was supposed to begin.<p>

He silently slipped through the corridors, his gun raised at eye level, his senses at full alert while he listened for any noise or hint of movement. He knew in order for this to work he had to get to Quinn, who was probably down by the auditorium already. He didn't know who was planning on setting off the bomb, but if he could get to it before the ceremony began then he could figure out a way to deactivate it. All he had to do was find Quinn first.

As he got closer and closer to the first floor, he could hear the sounds of the students and their family members rushing together to get in their seats. They were all completely unaware of the impending attack on their peaceful lives and he felt a pang of regret that he hadn't been able to stop this sooner. There was still a chance that these people might die today, and his resolve was set as he approached the hallways by Sue's office. He quickly put away his gun when he saw the backs of some guards, and approached them with his head held high.

"Excuse me, you're not authorized to be here." One of the burly guards addressed him but he continued forward, his eyes fixed on his goal. "Stop moving and put your hands in the air!" The guard commanded, and Finn snapped, his years of survival instinct automatically kicking in.

His weapon was revealed in an instant, and he fired off one silent round into the guards chest while the other one reached for his handset to call for backup. Finn kicked the radio out of his hand and brought the butt of his weapon down hard, knocking the other man out instantly as the two bodies were splayed out on the floor. The man he had shot might not survive but he no longer cared; the only thing that mattered was the safety of the school and his friends. He wrote it off as collateral damage as he entered Sue's office, rummaging wildly through the drawers in hopes that she had stashed the bomb there.

So far, he found nothing. He didn't know how long he would have until the other guards were informed of the security breach, so he ripped apart the office at light speed, trying to look for anything that could pass for a bomb. If his memory served, then the man who had originally set off the bomb was tall and broad; he'd had the package wrapped around his chest in a vest with the lumpy boxes attached to a ticking detonator. Nothing of that description matched what he found in her office, and a heavy sense of dread filled him to the core. Maybe the bomb was already strapped on and ticking down? Maybe he had missed his chance through all of his monumental distractions.

He lifted his gun once more, ready to re-enter the hallways and kill every security guard that got in his way of finding that bomb. He was about to exit the room when he turned around and came face to face with Quinn Fabray, the Quinn Fabray of his time, who was staring at him with nothing but hatred reflecting in her bright green eye.

"Well, hello Finn," she cooed as she held up a lumpy black package that froze the blood solid in his veins. "Looking for something?"

* * *

><p>Finn and Rachel were stuck in traffic for longer than they expected as they tried to make their way back towards the school through the throngs of families who were traveling to see their children graduate. It was quickly approaching ten am when they finally made it back to the lot, and the scene surrounding the school could only be described as controlled chaos. There were police and news reporters everywhere, and anyone who wanted to enter the school had to show a photo ID to be cleared. She hastily handed her wallet over to the cop that was currently blocking her way into the school as time continued to drop down like the blades of a guillotine. By the time they parked the car and entered the loud and crowded hallways, there were barely minutes to spare before the start of the ceremony.<p>

She stood on her tip-toes and tried to scan the crowds but there were too many people in the way of her view. She felt Finn squeezing her hand and she turned to him in a panic, needing to find the other Finn before it was too late.

"Where is he, Finn?" He pushed his way through the crowd, pulling her alongside him. She was grateful that his broad frame was large enough for her to just slip through the crowds behind him.

"I don't know, Rachel, he could be anywhere. We're running out of time." Finn pointed ahead of them where the security guards were trying to move people into the gymnasium and into their seats. A panic stronger than she'd ever felt before coursed through her veins as the adrenaline started to flow. She could tell that Finn was scanning the crowds as well but she couldn't see anything above the heads of the crowd surrounding her. When Principal Figgins' voice came over the loudspeaker, addressing everyone to enter the gymnasium for the start of the ceremony, she could feel herself being pushed towards the entrance with the flow of the crowd. Towards her death.

Suddenly, a flash of bright blonde hair caught her eye in the far corridor that led to the faculty offices, and with a jolt of her heart Rachel knew that this was her one and only shot. She quickly dropped Finn's hand and pushed through as many people that stood in her way until she had made it out of the pushy crowd. She could feel Finn reaching after her, and calling out her name for her to come back, but she pretended to ignore it in the buzzing hum of the crowd.

He was _supposed_ to be in that auditorium; she knew he would survive and at this point she had nothing to lose.

A security guard tried to call her back but she ignored him completely, screaming _"bathroom,"_ and running off into the unknown. She turned around for a nano-second, only to see Finn getting pushed into the auditorium with the rest of the graduates and their families where they would wait for the ceremony to begin.

This was her one chance to try and find Finn so she could help him stop the attack. She followed Quinn down the hallway and was stunned when she turned the corner that led to Sue's office, only to find two bodies littering the floor in front of her. She couldn't tell if they were alive or dead, but she knew in her gut that this had been Finn's doing. He was a man on a mission and nothing was going to stand in his way.

She _had _to find him.

She continued down the hallway that led to Sue's office and stopped in her tracks when she realized that she could hear familiar voices coming from inside of the small room. Crouching as low to the ground as possible, she approached the door and tried her best to listen in on their conversation, and what she heard made her blood run cold.

"What are you doing, Quinn?" Finn said, his voice hard as he addressed the girl from the future. "We have the power to stop this from happening. We have the chance to get our lives back."

"What life?" She scoffed. "I was ready to surrender myself to an existence of mediocrity and now I have it all. Sue has given me everything I've ever wanted."

"Yeah, in a corrupt and terrible world! We might never have another chance to make things right, Quinn. Why would you want to throw it all away?"

"Because one day Sue is going to make me the most powerful woman who ever _lived_. She promised she would take care of me. She always has." Rachel stared at the two time-travelers with awe as Finn's face froze from shock.

"Quinn, What exactly did Sue tell you about Artie's machine?" He took an uneasy step towards her and she backed away quickly, keeping her distance from Finn as she held the bomb in her hands. "Do you actually think you're going to return to that place?"

"Of course I am! Sue said so!"

"Quinn, Sue wasn't the one who built that machine. Artie and I built it and I know for a fact that it's only a one way trip."

"No," she said, shaking her head. "Sue said that I would be rewarded when I returned, when I completed the mission."

"The only reason she sent you back here was to make sure that the attack took place so she could stay in power! _There is no way back!_"

"Liar!" Quinn suddenly raised the weapon that she had concealed in her back pocket and Rachel shot to her feet like a woman possessed as she ran forward and pushed the gun away from it's target. When Quinn pulled the trigger the bullet ricocheted off of a random trophy while Finn stared at Rachel in horror. Before she realized what was happening, she found herself unable to move in Quinn's remarkably strong grip as the older woman let out what sounded like a growl. The barrel of Quinn's gun was cold as it pressed up against her temple.

"Well, well, look at what we have here." Quinn said with a smirk as she continued to stare down Finn, who looked like all of his worst nightmares were coming true right in front of his eyes. He shook his head as Rachel mouthed the words _"I'm sorry."_

"Let her go, Quinn. She has nothing to do with this."

"_Oh please_," she snorted. "I thought she was the reason you did all of this in the first place, Finn! Wasn't that always the plan? To come back so you could save your precious Rachel Berry!" She pressed the barrel even harder against her temple and Rachel was frozen in fear.

Maybe she really _was_ supposed to die today. Maybe it had been written in the stars all along.

"Quinn no! Please, I'll do anything!" Finn cried in anguish as he visibly deflated from panic. Rachel looked up into Quinn's good eye and saw nothing but pure evil shining from it. There was a flurry of movement around her as Quinn passed the bomb over to Finn with her gun still firmly placed against Rachel's head in case he tried to run off with it.

"Put it on. Either you execute this plan exactly as I command it or everyone in this building dies, Rachel first."

"Quinn, don't do this. _Please._" Rachel felt tears dripping down her cheeks as she stared at the terrified man in front of her; the brave and loyal man who had traveled through time and space just to save her. he looked so broken. "We can stop this right now. We can make everything better and give ourselves the lives we deserve." Finn begged and pleaded with her to help him but it was no use. Quinn cocked the weapon next to Rachel's head and she could hear the sound of it echo in her brain, filling her with the deepest fear she had ever felt in her tragically short life.

"Let's go, Finn. The ceremony is about to begin."

* * *

><p>Until next time. . .sings. . .Don't Stop, Reviewing!<p>

Merci mille fois mes amis!


	8. The Explosion

DISCLAIMER: I neither own Glee nor the characters. They are the property of Ryan Murphy and FOX. This is purely for fun. Enjoy!

A/N: Sorry about the lack of updates but my mother was in the hospital and family always comes first. She's much better now, so we're back in business. Enjoy the **final **chapter of Out of Time!

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Eight: The Explosion<strong>

* * *

><p>Finn's heart was pounding harder than he'd ever felt before as he stood in Sue's office, completely helpless while Quinn attached the bomb around his midriff, sealing his fate as the mystery bomber who had destroyed his entire life in a single moment. One of Sue's bodyguards was standing behind him with a gun to his head, so there was no point in struggling or trying to escape. He had always wondered who the tall man had been, that horrifying day ten years past. It was a sick kind of symmetry that he was the one who had caused it, and thus consequently tried to solve it.<p>

While Quinn was busy strapping the wires onto his person, he couldn't help but lock eyes with Rachel, who was standing on the far side of Sue's office with a big beefy bodyguard standing at her side. He wished that she'd listened to him and escaped instead of walking to her death, but there was nothing more he could do for her now. He had failed her in every single way, and now he could see the unshed tears glistening in her eyes from his position as they both faced the inevitable truth.

There was no way to stop the attack from happening.

He'd failed his mission.

"Quinn, I'm _begging _you, please don't do this," Rachel pleaded to the blond with anguish in her tone, but Quinn dismissed it with a sharp shake of the head.

"Shut up, Berry, it won't matter for much longer anyway." The bitterness in her tone was too heavy to ignore and it gave him chills. How could Quinn go through with the plan? How could she just stand by and watch her whole world be destroyed _again_.

"You know there's no way back after this, Quinn," he said, his voice so low that not even the guards could hear him. "You could stop this, you know you can. You can't let Sue win. All she's ever done was fight against us, even when we were back in glee club. It's not too late for you, Quinn. You can give yourself the life you should have had all along. You can save us all." For a moment, Quinn stopped attaching the wires around his chest and locked eyes with Finn, who stared into her good eye, hoping she would understand. For a moment, he saw a softness behind her gaze that he hadn't seen in years, and for a moment he thought he might have broken through to her.

However, he was only fooling himself, because instead of responding to his final request, Quinn continued with her task until the bomb was completely strapped onto Finn's torso. He squirmed under the unfamiliar weight of it, and it was awkward, lumpy, and horribly uncomfortable. When he looked into her eyes again, all the emotion he had seen there was now gone, replaced with nothing but hatred. She pressed a button on the center console and the timer came to life, flashing zeros as all of Finn's hopes were dashed in an instant.

"Put this on," Quinn commanded as he threw him a large, black trench coat. As he slipped it on over his body and the homemade bomb, he felt a sickening sense of deja vu that shook him to the core. He really _was _the bomber. The coat looked exactly as he'd remembered it.

With armed bodyguards surrounding them at all sides, Rachel looked terrified as they were slowly led towards the gymnasium and he reached over to squeeze her hand tightly. The fear in her eyes was too prominent to ignore and he was on the verge of panicking. He wanted to get her out of here so badly, but it was too late. There was no escape.

"I'm sorry, Rachel," was all he could say to the girl that he had failed over and over again. His whole life had been dedicated to stopping this tragedy, when in reality he was the one who had caused it.

"Don't be, Finn. You did everything you could."

"It wasn't enough." She looked like she wanted to argue, but before he could speak Quinn came up behind her with a loaded gun pointed right at the back of her head. Rachel's eyes shot open from the shock of the cold metal on her skin and Finn was helpless to prevent any of it.

"Let her go!" He could hear the opening measures to _Pomp and Circumstance_ and knew that the ceremony had already begun. They had minutes left to spare before he blew up the entire school.

"No way. She's my collateral, just in case you decide to be a hero." She cocked the gun and Finn saw a single tear fall from Rachel's eye. "Get up on that stage, Finn. _Now_." Rachel's fear was so thick it was stifling him as he made up his mind to complete the task at hand. Maybe if Quinn kept her behind the scenes, Rachel would be safer. In any case, he was out of options as Quinn nodded towards the entrance.

With his resolve already set, he opened the doors to the gymnasium and sealed his own fate forever as he walked towards the stage.

* * *

><p>Sitting in the uncomfortable chairs of the gymnasium, and fidgeting wildly in his bright red graduation gown, Finn couldn't stop worrying as he searched around the room for the familiar sight of Rachel. They had been separated for about 10 minutes and he was starting to get worried. Was she with his future counterpart? Had they figured out a way to stop the attack?<p>

"Finn, what's your problem? You need to relax before you start getting stress acne." Kurt was sitting next to him since they were seated in alphabetical order, and even he could notice how visibly upset Finn was at the moment. He ignored his step-brother and continued searching for Rachel in the crowd. If they had stopped the attack, he certainly couldn't tell; the gym was quickly filling up with people and Figgins was starting to command everyone's attention so they could begin. He was so nervous he couldn't focus on anything other than finding Rachel and didn't notice when the doors started to close from the outside. Rachel was still nowhere to be found when the band started playing the intro to _Pomp and Circumstance _and Finn was now officially freaking out.

He spotted Sue sitting cross-legged on the stage, a small smirk playing at the corners of her lips while Finn simmered quietly with rage. If he didn't get proof that the bomb threat was stopped in thirty seconds, he was going to stand up and say something, damn everyone's reaction. He started to pump himself up, like he was heading out on the field for a championship game-winning play, and took a deep breath before working up the nerve to stand up in his seat.

No one noticed him however, because at that very moment the back doors to the gym opened up, and a tall man in a long black trench coat started to walk up the aisle towards the stage.

"No," he whispered under his breath as the tall man passed by his row. The man looked up at him for a fraction of a second and when they locked eyes he didn't know whether to scream or run.

It was _him_. His future self was staring him right in the eye and the shock of it all was practically crippling him. Rachel was still nowhere to be seen and Finn's heart started to race.

"Save her," was all that the scarred man said as he walked past him, and Finn's blood was frozen in his veins at the implication. Rachel was obviously in trouble and he needed to do something, but what?

The man in black approached the stage while Finn stood there, almost mute from the shock of the situation. This was really happening and the reality of the situation made him snap as his body started running on auto-pilot.

_"__Bomb!"_He yelled, scaring both himself and the people sitting around him. All the heads in his vicinity turned to face him with varying looks of confusion while Kurt elbowed him in the ribs, hard.

"What do you think you're doing?" He hissed, but Kurt went ignored as he took a deep breath and screamed it again.

"_That man has a bomb!" _Standing up and pointing at the man who was still slowly approaching the stage, the crowd erupted into a cacophony of screams that deafened him while the audience began to panic. His future self continued to walk forward towards Sue, while he got lost in the panicked crowd.

"Stop! Wait!" Sue started to yell as the crowd quickly got to their feet and headed for the escape exits, only to find them all blocked by Sue's guards and locked from the outside. She had trapped them all with no way out. He looked at the stage and his future self was still walking towards Sue with a purpose. Was the bomb really going to explode now? Should he run? Where was Rachel?

Time moved in slow motion as he watched as his future self walked towards Sue, holding his coat closed until they were standing face to face. The scarred man curled his lip up in disgust and opened up the coat to reveal the bomb.

"Die, you bitch!" He yelled before revealing the bomb to the screaming crowd. He closed his eyes and watched as his life flashed before his eyes. There was a beat of silence where both Finns waited for the explosion to come, but a moment later when he re-opened his eyes, he was still standing in his red gown in the middle of a panicked crowd.

Nothing had happened. The bomb didn't go off. His future self was staring down at the bomb and the timer was nothing but flashing zeros.

Before he could figure out what was going on, a loud gunshot echoed off the walls and brought the entire gymnasium to a standstill. Finn looked up on the stage in horror as Quinn pulled Rachel by her hair with the gun still pointing at her head, and a collective gasp of shock rang through the frightened crowd.

"Nobody move!" Quinn pointed the gun at the ceiling again and let out another shot before returning it to Rachel's temple. She looked terrified and her fear only intensified his as he absorbed the situation. The bomb was attached to his future self and Rachel was standing right in it's path. It was never supposed to be like this! He had to find a way to get her away from Quinn. "You're not going anywhere. The doors are locked from the outside."

"Oh!" Sue cried dramatically from her position on the stage. She was a terribly poor actor. "What is the meaning of this?" Suddenly, instead of pointing the gun at Rachel again, Quinn turned around and glared at Sue with her good eye while she slowly pointed the gun towards her, shocking everyone both on stage and in the crowd.

"I think you know what this is about, Sue." her voice was shaking almost as much as the gun. "Tell them. Tell them the truth about how you planned to have them all killed."

Well, he definitely was not expecting that.

* * *

><p>To say that Rachel was scared at the moment was an understatement. In reality, she was so terrified that she could barely support her own weight. The barrel of the gun was pressed hard into her temple and it was still hot from all the bullets that Quinn had already fired. All she wanted to do was run, but her body had frozen from fear and Quinn still had a murderous grip on her in point blank range.<p>

At the moment, however, she was more concerned with the bomb that was still attached to Finn's torso, and wondered why it hadn't gone off yet. Finn looked just as confused as she did and she could see the other Finn in the crowd from the corner of her eye, dressed in his red gown and looking more scared than she'd ever seen him. Sue was frozen at center stage, staring out into the audience who was still in a mild state of panic.

"Tell them, Sue!" Quinn continued and pressed the gun even deeper into her temple. She let out a whimper of pain as the pressure began to build. "Tell them or I'll shoot her right here." She threatened as she cocked the gun.

"No!" Came the harsh cry from both Finns; she saw her Finn in the crowd, dressed in his red cap and gown, trying to push through the crowd and make it to the stage. The other Finn stayed perfectly still, lest he provoke Quinn, but she could see the panic swirling in his eyes.

Sue smirked evilly; her eyes glistening with hate as her innocent demeanor changed instantly. "Do it, Quinn. They're all going to die anyway in a few minutes from the bomb, so why not get started early?" The crowd gasped in unison as the truth fell from Sue's lips. Sue started to walk forward, towards her and Quinn, and Rachel could almost feel Quinn's defenses crumbling as Sue used her powerful influence against her. "Come on, Q. It's _me_. I've always taken care of you and I plan on doing it again." The softness in her tone disappeared as quickly as it came. "Now follow the plan and set off the damn bomb already!"

"No," Quinn said firmly and pushed Rachel away from her so she could hold the gun with both hands, pointing it directly at Sue. She was momentarily falling until a pair of strong arms grabbed her around her waist, and bright red was the only color she could see as Finn steadied her on her feet. He pulled her away from the stage, into the chaos of the crowd, but her eyes were still locked on Quinn, Sue and the Finn on stage, who still had the dormant bomb strapped to his chest.

"All my life, you've done _nothing_ to help other people. You promised to take care of me but the only thing you ever did was turn me into _this_." She waved at her face and looked out into the crowd. Rachel and her made eye contact for a split second and then her focused returned to Sue. "I want the entire world to know that you're a cold, psychopathic monster, and I'm not going to let you hurt the people I love ever again. It ends here. Tell them all the truth or I will shoot you."

Sue looked around the crowd and Rachel hadn't even realized that the chaos had calmed down into complete and total silence. The rest of the graduating class, the faculty and all the student's family members stared at Sue with nothing but hate and disgust written plainly on their features. Sue started to back up slowly, looking around her as the crowd started to move forward. There was booing that steadily grew louder until Sue suddenly bolted for the door, trying to run from the mob of people she had just tried to kill.

The police officers that surrounded the building were no longer under Sue's command now that the truth was out, and they grabbed her the second she tried to escape from the gym. While Rachel wanted to bask in the glory of success, there was still a major problem at hand.

Quinn and Finn were still on stage, and now the cops wanted them, too

* * *

><p>It was a bittersweet kind of victory for Finn as he stood on stage, watching the cops haul Sue away in handcuffs. For the first time in ten years, he felt vindicated. He had succeeded in his mission, even though it was Quinn who had orchestrated the entire thing.<p>

All that mattered was that his friends and family was alive, which meant one thing.

His mission was complete.

He no longer belonged in this world.

Quinn and him were the only people left on the stage when he noticed the other cops rushing into the gymnasium with their weapons pointing directly at the two time-travelers, and their options were very slim. He could see Rachel from his peripheral vision and she was safe with his younger self; exactly where she was supposed to be. Now she could have the life that was once stolen from her; it was all he had ever wanted.

There was only one more thing left to do.

"So, you have any bright ideas now, Quinn?" He whispered as the police surrounded the stage. Quinn had her weapon still raised at the officers but she reached into her pocket for a simple remote control. They made eye contact with one another and the decision was already made. It was their only option and they both knew it.

"Follow my lead. I've disabled the bomb for now, but I can still make it go off whenever I want." Quinn said, under her breath while she started to step backwards towards the exit. "Let us pass," she yelled to the cops that surrounded them.

"Put your weapons down and get down on the ground!" An officer ordered, but they both ignored his request.

"Let us pass or else this school is going up in flames." She pressed the button on the remote and the bomb came to life, the timer changing from the flashing zeros to 2:00 minutes. His heart started to sync up to the ticking of the timer and he knew in his heart that this was the right thing to do.

Suddenly he heard a scream from the crowd and saw Rachel trying to move towards the stage, her arms stretched out as if she were trying to reach him. Luckily, his younger counterpart was there to hold her back, and she collapsed into the safety of his arms when she realized what had to happen now. He smiled warmly, thinking about the life that they would have together, and the hapiness they would share.

His conscience was clear. There were no more regrets.

"Everybody move! We have a live explosive!" The crowd quickly parted as Finn started to walk out of the gymnasium, the clock still ticking as Quinn followed him with the gun still raised for some cover. Once they were clear of the doors, they started running towards the football feild at full speed as the timer ticked past 30 seconds. They knew this was all the time they had left and were happy they didn't have to go through their final mission alone. As the clock ticked down from 00:10 seconds they held hands and when Finn looked at Quinn for the final time there was an actual smile on her face. For a moment, she was beautiful again.

"Thank you, Quinn. For saving them."

"No," she said sweetly, the ghost of the girl she once was. "Thank you, Finn. For saving me."

And then, they were no more.

* * *

><p>It took all summer for Rachel to get over the death of his future self. They had followed the cops outside, along with most of the crowd to see the epic explosion and Rachel had been inconsolable for days, refusing to even look at him. It was hard for him to come to grips with the reality of what had happened those few days before graduation, and sometimes he wondered if it were all a crazy kind of dream. But when Rachel looked tearfully into his eyes and started to stroke the unmarred skin of his face, he knew that it was all true. His future self had come back and sacrificed himself so Rachel could live. It really did sound like something he would do when he thought about it, late at night when he couldn't sleep.<p>

However, now that his future self was gone, Rachel was struggling with her greif over the situation. He wanted to be there for her and support her, but he couldn't help but feel a little bit jealous. Had Rachel fallen for his future self? Was he now second best compared to the overwhelming feat of heroism that his future counterpart had accomplished?

The thought depressed him more and more as summer quickly passed them by. It was now August and their departure dates for college were only days away. They had barely mentioned it all summer, but the threat of it was there, and now it was looming closer than ever. In fact, Finn had already started packing, and his room was a veritable sty when he looked up to see Rachel standing in his doorway in a simple summer dress. She smiled softly before entering, going over to his closet and pulling out his Titans jacket.

"Are you going to take your letterman's jacket to college with you? You're playing for the Purdue team now and high school football seems a bit mediocre in comparison, don't you think?"

He grinned as he recognized the playful tone in her voice. She hadn't been this cheerful in a long while. "You just want to steal my jacket cause you want to wear it around New York. Admit it."

"Guilty," she said as she slipped it on and pushed up the sleeves. It practically swam on her, but he always thought it was adorable. She brought the lapel up to her nose and inhaled deeply, closing her eyes. "It smells like you." They made eye contact and he could see the unshed tears swimming there as she tried to maintain composure. Her voice was shaky and unsteady when she spoke again. "We're going to try and make this work, right?"

"Of course, baby," he said as he pulled her into his arms. She buried herself into his chest and nuzzled her head against him. "I'm going to call you every day and we'll fly to Lima for the holidays and I'll come to New York for Spring Break. It will be great."

"I just don't want to lose you again." He winced when he interpreted the hidden meaning. She was still thinking about the other Finn when she said those words.

"Rachel," he gently pushed her away from him so he could look into her watery eyes."I know you cared about him. I get it. But I'm not going anywhere. The other me came back here to make sure that we had the life we deserved and I'm ready to start it with you. College is just the first step but I want this to work. We _have _to make this work, not just for us, but for the Finn who'd sacrificed it all just so you can live. He wouldn't want you to mourn him forever, because now we can finally be happy." He leaned down and gently placed his lips on hers, coaxing her mouth open until their tongues met in a searing kiss that reminded them of their true feelings for one another. No matter how far away they might be, they would always love each other, and nothing, not even fate, could stop it.

"I love you, Finn." She whispered as they broke apart for air.

"I love you too, Rachel." He kissed the top of her forehead. "Until the ends of time."

* * *

><p><strong>THE END<strong>

* * *

><p>Merci mille fois, mes amis!<p> 


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